Exiles: World after World
by Sinister2004
Summary: Hopping from dimension to dimension this group of people are faced with the toughest challenges the Omniverse has to offer.
1. Chapter 1

**A World of Bloodshed**

Pink lightning soared through the desolate hillside until a circular portal of like color split through the fabric of reality. Six super-powered individuals were the contents spewed from the portal right on to an abundance of rocks.

"I so know I broke a nail," Morph said turning his hand into that of a well-kept woman's.

"And your head on top of that," Nocturne replied grabbing her head, which had hit a few rocks, in pain.

"You should be worried about Ghost Rider's head after how hard Mimic clocked him," Morph laughed turning his eyes into rotating black and white swirls as he pretended to fall to the ground knocked out cold.

Nocturne didn't respond to that comment because while she didn't verbally admit it the last mission had gotten to her. That world's Ghost Rider was Nightcrawler underneath and fighting him had bothered her more than she would admit. She knew it wasn't her father, but just seeing him made her think about the time she had nearly lost her father to darkness. It had been on a mission to the Savage Land and Brainchild had nearly made her father into a slave. That experience had frightened her to the core.

Seeing Nocturne's uncomfortable expression Thunderbird quickly jumped into the situation grabbing Morph around the neck and lifting him up into the air, "Sidney you oughta watch what you say my friend."

"Put him down John! How the hell was he suppose to know Talia would get all sensitive?" Sunfire asked ready to throw a fireball at the former Horsemen of War. She was only angry because the last mission had bothered her as well. Along with fighting Ghost Rider they had to fight a version of herself that had sold her soul to a demon for power. Seeing such a twisted version of herself made her wonder just what darkness lied in her heart.

"Everyone shut up! The Tallus just gave us our mission. This world isn't going to be pretty," Blink exclaimed carrying a javelin in each hand. The Tallus had given her plenty of reason to think that a threat could come at any moment. So she'd have to explain herself quickly.

"Oooo Blink's fire hot today!" Morph laughed turning his head into a giant lit match.

"Be serious Sidney! What's going on Clarice?" Mimic asked unsheathing his claws. He could see that Blink was carrying her javelins and her eyes were moving in too many directions for someone who was in a non-hostile situation.

"This world is controlled entirely by vampires. Humans are nothing more than blood banks and they're situated in camps throughout the globe. We're near Camp 447. It use to be New York City," Blink explained.

"You're kidding right?" Morph said taking a large, over-exaggerated gulp.

"Not one damn bit, now don't talk so loud. Vampires have enhanced senses. No telling what kind of defenses they have around the camps," Blink replied in a near whisper.

"What's the mission?" Thunderbird asked trying to suppress his own experiences with vampires. While he was a Horseman, Apocalypse had allied with a group of vampires. He led them into battle against the Thunderbolts and the team was decimated. The thought of him snapping Songbird's neck still plagued him during his sleep.

"We have to get to Camp 546 aka Tokyo and stop the resurrection of the Lord of Night. If we stop him from being resurrected a successful human rebellion is possible," Blink replied praying that she couldn't be heard.

"A rebellion eh? Such ideas can get you killed," a slithery voice said as she flew forth literally from the shadows.

"Fuck!" Mimic yelled sending off an optic blast and sending the woman careening into a nearby boulder. Her body split the rock in two and she rose from it completely unscathed. Dusting her purple body off she laughed maniacally.

"Marie Laveau," Sunfire groaned.

"Who?" Blink asked both worried and feeling very vulnerable. Apocalypse had eliminated all the mystics on her world if that was indeed what this woman was.

"She's a very powerful voodoo priestess. When I use to roll with Jubilee we encountered her in New Orleans. She's a nasty bitch," Sunfire explained.

The sounds of boots moving across the rocks came from behind the Exiles. At the head of the pack was Blade. To his right was Hannibal King and to his left was Jennifer Kale adorned with numerous body piercings.

"You don't just have to worry about Laveau," Blade smiled pulling out his titanium sword.

"Man I love me some Asian blood," Hannibal laughed flashing his teeth.

"Oh fuck you!" Sunfire exclaimed sending off a tiny ball of plasma that quickly grew in size until it engulfed all three vampires and burnt them to a crisp. Dusting her hands off Mariko smiled, "That wasn't so hard."

Two quick gunshots zoomed through the air and made the Exiles quickly scatter. Looking up Morph saw the blood dripping from Sunfire's still body. Jumping up to his feet he yelled out in agony, "You bastards!"

"Morph wait! Wait!" Blink called out to no avail. She could only watch as Sidney blindly charged into whatever had attacked and killed Mariko.

"Oh I bet you taste different!" Selene said delightfully as she glided quickly across the ground moving towards Morph.

"Too bad you won't find out!" Talia yelled as a powerful hex blast struck Selene in the face. The vampire's face literally melted off leaving a headless body to fall to the ground. The sight would have normally made Nocturne throw up if she wasn't so mad at Sunfire's death.

"Thanks for the save."

"You should have been more careful Sidney. You could be dead right now," Nocturne angrily stated.

"Its just…I should have blocked those bullets," Morph said hanging his head low and clenching both his fists.

"Be on alert! We still don't know who fired them shots!" Blink reminded as the team quickly regrouped.

"And I smell some more of them headed our way," Mimic said turning his body into steel to keep a vampire's bite from penetrating him. He should have done that from the start, but he had acted instinctively off the appearance of Marie Laveau. She was nowhere to be found now, but he knew she was out there. Out there and waiting to kill them.

"We need to find a map of some sort. The human camps are bound to have one somewhere. That's were we need to go," Blink said.

"Are you insane? That's like being a full of paper cuts and deciding to swim with sharks!"

"I agree with Morph. We have no idea what's in those camps," Thunderbird said.

"The quicker we get to Tokyo the better. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready to get the hell out of here!" Blink scowled creating a portal a few feet in front of her; "We'll move as many yards as we can with only portals to prevent us from having to walk too much. We should be able to make it to the Camp quicker and safer that way."

"Sure boss lady. Whatever you say," Morph said chaining his form into a nearly naked man with a ball and chain around both his feet.

Foggy Nelson had been one of the Low Guard even since the age of 13. The vampires didn't want to supervise their human camps so they employed other humans to do it. The promise was that no member of the Low Guard would ever be bitten. It was as solid as any promise from a vampire could be. Nelson knew it made him hated amongst his fellow humans, but far better to be hated than dead.

Being one of the Low Guard was a relatively easy job considering the very small amount of uprisings. The only time the Low Guard was on full alert was five years ago when Camps 571 and 1820 committed mass suicide rather than become food for the vampires. If the idea had caught on, Earth probably would be devoid of intelligent life right now. Fortunately, that never happened.

So, it was really no surprise when Morph was able to take out Foggy with a well-placed hammer fist to the head. Standing over the unconscious body Sidney looked out in the horrors of the massive blood camp. Sewage might as well have been soil. No one slept inside of the shaggy boxed up homes. Most had large pieces of cardboards for beds.

"This is awful," Blink could barely manage to say as memories of the Slave Pits of her world took hold. Many had suffered there and she could feel the agony of living day to day here. Something seemed wrong to her though, "Some of these people look well-fed and healthy."

Mimic's face turned up in disgust, "Ain't it obvious? These poor souls are the vampires' next meal. Notice how all of them toss and turn. They probably have no idea which day might be their last."

"This has to end," Morph proclaimed no longer able to find a witty comment to make. All he felt was emptiness. In comparison to this world his own was relatively peaceful. Sure you had the occasional Kree of Zemo attack, but nothing like this. Nothing even close.

"It will end Morph," Blink promised as she turned to Nocturne and smiled, "What's the probability of a bunch of blinding fireworks tearing through the sky?"

Rubbing her hands together Nocturne mischievously grinned, "Oh I'd say the chances are pretty damn good!"

"Mimic and T-Bird once Talia hits the lights you two tear through them guards hard. Morph and myself will get into the camp and try to get some kind of information. Someone has to have a map or know something that can help. Talia once we go in follow right behind us," Blink ordered like this was the final strike against the High Lord all over again. She had already lost Sunfire and Mr. Creed had taught her casualties were never acceptable amongst teammates.

"Okay everybody hold on one second. Our plan will attract the vampires more than likely. Vampires like Selene and Laveau," Mimic warned realizing that he was more afraid of this reality than he thought.

"Too late," Selene hissed as she stepped out of the shadows. Behind her were Laveau, Blade, King, and Kale. All of them looked not only pissed, but also ready to have a feast. It was a scene straight out of a Wes Craven movie as the vampires slowly approached a back stepping group of Exiles who grew closer to a cliff's edge. The situation looked dire for the Exiles indeed.

"NOW!" Blink yelled as she created a portal in front of herself and threw two of her javelins in it. Another portal instantly appeared behind Marie Laveau's head where two javelins lodged themselves. The priestess's molecules were displaced greatly leaving her a pile of misshapen flesh. Pink smoke billowed off the inhuman mass.

"Wood should handle these suckers!" Morph exclaimed as he turned his arms into giant stakes. Stretching out his arms he stabbed both Selene and Jennifer Kale in their hearts.

"Wood? You gotta be joking," Kale laughed as she pulled herself off the stake and bit into Morph's wooden arm with inhuman speed. She began to drain his blood generously and in the process paralyzed him. Selene joined in on the drinking and soon Sidney Jones was a lifeless husk. The two women had found the meal quite tasty.

"You skanky bitches!" Nocturne yelled as she blasted Kale in the abdomen with a hex bolt and immediately took possession of Selene's body. Being a second-generation mutant had given her three abilities and the possession of another person for one lunar cycle was uniquely hers. Though Karma had poked fun at her for copying her powers now and then. That was before Sinister killed her.

Immediately taking advantage of Selene's magical abilities Nocturne froze all the vampires in place. She absorbed all their life essences into herself leaving them frozen skeletons. Looking to Blink she was nearly in tears from both the death of Morph and what she had just done.

"Poor Morph. How could he have known their weakness was diamond instead of wood?" Nocturne asked as she knelt to the ground and began to sob. That's when another gunshot was fired and it struck Talia in the shoulder. Selene's body went flying back.

A man dressed in cowboy attire stepped into view with his gun still smoking, "Two-Gun Kid knows his friends and Selene don't cry! Who the hell are you jackasses?"

Mimic could smell the intense alcohol a mile away, but he could barely smell the drinker himself. What had diminished his senses against the vampires so suddenly? Before he had been able to smell them like anything else. Now it was like they barely even existed.

"We're about to be a group of ass kickers in a second here," Thunderbird snarled. This was the man who had killed Sunfire and tried to kill Nocturne. He would not stand for any more death this day. His team had nearly been split in half and he had seen his share of teams falling around him. He was the last X-Forcer standing against the Horsemen of Death and Famine. That's why Cannonball and Snowbird didn't kill him and took him to become War. Surviving had carried a high price for Proudstar and he could only imagine the same would result her if the Exiles fell in battle.

Just as Two-Gun was about to shoot again a diamond spear ripped through his chest and turned the vampire into dust. The woman holding the spear was petit Brazilian woman with a GI haircut. Around her neck was a black choker with a red jewel in the center. Slamming her spear into the ground the woman scanned over the Exiles thoroughly before saying, "Come with me if you want to live!"

"You heard the lady," Blink said supporting a quickly healing Nocturne on her shoulder.

As they began to run a thought came to Mimic, "How come the Timebroker hasn't sent us new people yet?"

Somewhere 

"Hello Vange. I wasn't expecting you to drop by for a visit," Timebroker said with a scowl as the Fabio look alike moved towards him.

"Oh you think I don't like paying a visit to whatever you call this place? Come now Timebroker we go back way too far for that," Vange smiled devilishly.

**Next Issue: Will the Exiles survive? And just who is Vange and how does he know the Timebroker?**


	2. Chapter 2

**The Lord of Night**

"Who are you?" Blink asked the woman who had just saved them from Two-Gun Kid. Something about the young woman just screamed defiance. Clarice wanted to join in that scream. At the moment she was feeling especially vulnerable and having something to siphon strength from would be a great help.

Calvin could clearly see the admiration Blink had for the little pygmy, but he couldn't help feeling suspicious about the woman. How had she known to show up when she did? Why wasn't she in one of the camps? Most importantly, was she unique?

"Her name is Elsa Bloodstone," Nocturne, still occupying Selene's body, answered. Talia was seeing all the memories of the vampire and they horrified her. Elsa was part of the extremely small resistance movement against the vampires. Her Bloodstone had made her immune to vampirism.

"That's right body snatcher. Now shut up and keep running!" Elsa ordered roughly never keeping her eyes in any one direction. The blue girl had only stopped Blade and the others. No vampire could be killed permanently except with diamond. Eating onion dissolved their innards and put them into a coma. Sunlight only dehydrated them, but the feeling was unpleasant enough to keep them inside.

"Are you running a solo operation?" Thunderbird asked ignoring Elsa's comment about remaining silent. Horsemen, even former ones, didn't take orders from those they perceived as inferior easily.

"She wishes she was that lucky," Northstar said raining down from the ground carrying two small children in his arms. Both looked like they had come from the camps.

Stopping her run Elsa sighed, "You went on the mission anyway? By yourself as well? Jean you can't be taking risks like that."

"Well, it seems your new friends drew out Blade and the others. It was the perfect moment to move in I think. Besides these are his children. He deserves to have them back," Northstar replied.

Blink had heard from Magneto that the Northstar of her world was as vicious as they came and he worked under Sinister. It was hard to imagine that looking at how gentle this man was and how he so tenderly carried the two young children in his arms. They had to only be 2 years old. Clarice nearly fell into tears looking into the eyes of the children. It was as if innocence had been replaced with horror. She had seen those same eyes on her world so many times. At one point those were the eyes she had.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I want to keep moving. No telling when Blade and the others might catch up to us. Fighting a voodoo priestess isn't on my list of favorite things to do if you know what I mean," Mimic said unsheathing his bone claws. Standing still like this in the wide open made Calvin nervous as hell. He didn't like it one bit and his mind was still wracked with why Timebroker hadn't sent them any replacements yet.

Elsewhere 

White blankness stretched in all directions. There was no geographical feature noticeable for miles. It was as if the Timebroker resided in an infinite white cube. Timebroker found the environment quite suitable to his needs even when others found it bland.

"Oh Timebroker you really need to decorate my man! Things are just so…dull in here. I can't believe I use to like this place," Vange complained.

"What do you want Vange? You want to pull out another special move on me?" Timebroker asked annoyed with the unexpected visit of Vange.

"Oh you're talking about that team of Exiles aren't you? Well, its part of our little game. I get to put up roadblocks every now and then just like you do," Vange reminded smugly. One certain team of Exiles was proving to be one of Timebroker's most successful. He needed to knock them down a notch and by not being able to have replacements come in their success rate was far lower.

"Do you ever tire of our game?" Timebroker asked as he took a seat in a spontaneously created chair. Creating a cup of English Tea specific to Earth 616 the Timebroker looked as if he had taken a taste of heaven.

"You and your damn sophistication. And no. I don't ever tire of our game. It's the only thing that keeps me from being driven mad. You and me both understand the true nature of the Omniverse," Vange reminded.

"Yes we do," Timebroker, sighed thinking on that ultimate truth. In all the Omniverse there was only one true constant. Nothing mattered. Nothing you could ever do would ever really matter. When every possibility exists there is nothingness. That is the truth of the Omniverse and Timebroker has been grappling with it for quite some time.

"Oh don't look so sad Timebroker. We're still having fun despite that. Think about it now for a second. If Kang, Ramses Xavier, Khan, Immortus, and the like all knew what we know do you think they would stop their conquests? No, they would only pursue them even harder to prove the truth wrong."

"We're different from them Vange. You know that well," Timebroker said creating a small wooden table to put down his tea.

"The one who made us chose to make us composed of billions of minds for a reason. We were meant to be unique Timebroker," Vange protested.

In appearance the two couldn't look more different. Timebroker looked like a fat Jarvis with pupiless eyes while Vange was a Fabio look-alike wearing neatly pressed fluorescent colored suits. The suit this time happened to be a lime green. It was hardly a wonder the two were at odds with each other on so many things.

"Why are so nonchalant about the nature of us and the Omniverse? Vange we were meant for a higher purpose. Instead we play this game. What if I was to stop playing the game now?" Timebroker asked.

Vange chuckled, "Oh my boy well I'd be worse than Kang and all his incarnations combined."

"That's what I figured. Your dominant personality after all is quite violent."

"And yours is a good doer who's long outlived his time on most worlds. Isn't that right Clark Kent?"

"In the Omniverse time is no more constant than anything else. But En Sabah Nur wouldn't see that I'm sure," Timebroker shot back.

"You got a little fire in you! I knew our maker threw a couple of Typhoid Marys into you," Vange smiled wickedly.

Jumping up from his chair all the items he had previously created disappeared in a puff of smoke that sounded like a crash of lightning, "Why are you here Vange?"

Snapping his fingers Vange acted like he had just remembered, "That's right. I just want to let you know that our game of ours is about to intensify. This is your notice. First people on my list are those damn reality hopping teams of yours."

Thunderbird hated being underground, but that's where Elsa and Northstar's base of operations was so this is where they came. Proudstar couldn't imagine living here. He yearned to be free and out in the open. Not to mention being confined remain him of the time spent in Apocalypse's genetic alteration chamber when he was being made into a Horseman.

Mimic looked around the dark cave and began to whistle to prevent himself from making a snide comment. Blink on the other hand made her feelings known, "So this is your base huh? Nifty."

"If you call living underground nifty then that's all you honey. Otto is going to be so happy to see his kids. Otto! Otto!" Northstar called out as he slowly flew around the large cave looking for the father of the two children he was carrying.

"So who's Otto? An old English guy," Mimic said his mind still on Timebroker and what the hell he was trying to pull.

"Otto Octavius. One of the world's most brilliant men. He gives us all our tech and is pretty much the only reason we're alive today," Elsa replied her hand demanding her to backhand the rude Calvin. She fought the instinct though and just gave the bulky man an indignant glare.

"Doc Ock? Boy oh boy," Nocturne sighed putting her hand to her forehead.

"Guess you had an encounter with him before," Mimic laughed.

Looking to Thunderbird, Talia smiled, "You could say that. I use to date his son."

"What the hell are you all rambling on about?" Elsa asked believing these people to be insane vagabonds more and more with every sentence they spoke.

"Get Otto. We have a story to tell you," Blink replied.

Tokyo 

The long hallway was lined with six foot torches carved from the finest marble of Greece. Wild flames moved exotically through the air lighting the passageway. These flames were not of a normal nature because they filled the air with the fragrance of dried blood. It was a smell that the High Priest of the vampires savored as he made his way down the purple rug to the end of the hallway where his race's greatest hope laid asleep. The end of the hall gave way to a massive steel door etched all over with masks of a grotesque nature. All of the masks were mystical wards meant to keep the Lord of Night trapped.

The white-cloaked cleric made his way to the end of the hall and rubbed his hand across many of the masks making them glow a bright red as he did so. Pulling back his hood long black hair escaped and reached down to the edge of his buttocks. Kirigi grinned with blood stained teeth, "Soon my master you will be free. In only a few hours."

Turning his back to the door Kirigi made tracks for whence he came. As he moved swiftly down the hall he took the time to acknowledge the large portraits of the great vampires that had come before him. Dracula, Herbert Wyndham, Nathaniel Essex, Woodrow Wilson, and Ho Chi Minh were just a few of those portraits. Moving his eyes across these portraits had prevented him from seeing one of his charges approach him, but his sense of smell had picked up on the young lad a long time before his arrival.

"What is wrong Kevin?" Kirigi asked the boy as he bowed before the High Priest.

"Camp 447 has experienced a rash of attacks by unknown assailants and Selene has gone missing," Kevin McTaggert mumbled afraid of the reaction the High Priest would unleash.

Holding a clamped fist to his mouth Kirigi cursed, "Does the universe conspire against me?"

Selene was one of the crucial pieces in resurrecting the Lord of Night. He could not handle the tremendous task alone. It was to be Selene, Marc Spector, and himself that would take upon the great honor of freeing the extremely powerful Lord of Night. Fate seemed to have cursed him now by snatching up Selene. Spector and himself did not have the needed power to complete the quest without the woman. If the Lord of Night were not freed tonight then it would be another thousand years before it could be attempted again. A thousand years that Kirigi would not be around to see.

"Find Marie Laveau. She will have to substitute for Selene. We have no choice," Kirigi ordered.

Rising up Kevin ran down the hall to do his master's bidding. Kirigi watched the young vampire run away and after he was gone out of sight the High Priest made his displeasure known, "This cannot be happening! Not tonight! Damn those lowborns for their interference! Damn them all!"

"Perhaps we can be of assistance master," twelve voices all hissed at once. Kirigi didn't even have to turn around to know who slithered behind him. They were his nagas. All of them bore the head of an aged woman, but the body of a purple boa constrictor. They were born from his own flesh. Kirigi was a master of flesh sculpting. He could take a piece of himself whether it is a limb, organ, or some other part and form it into a servant creature. It was even possible to combine fleshes to summon even more powerful creatures. He kept those more powerful creatures from the sight of many so as to have himself a cache of power against ambitious vampires seeking to usurp him.

Though he was grateful for their offer Kirigi had to refuse, "My nagas you are meant to defend me and the others during the summoning ceremony. Sending you out to find Laveau will mean me having to waste more valuable resources. I won't do that. Marie will have to do."

"Of course master," the nagas replied slithering away into the darkness once more.

"You must understand. This is quite a bit to take in," Octavius said full of shock as he sat down in a chair.

"Trust me I understand entirely. There are still times when I am shocked by the histories of my teammates. To be quite honest I'm more comfortable with worlds such as yours," Blink replied. The worlds where things didn't seem so bad or where things actually had a happy ending only depressed Clarice because she never got that in her life. Worlds where reality was harsh and where day-to-day living was the rule is what made Blink feel at ease. In a way they made her feel like she had returned home in some way.

"That's hardly the most shocking thing. The Lord of Night coming back is what's frightening," Elsa remarked.

"She's right. The Lord of Night cannot be freed," Talia replied drawing once again from the memories of Selene who she held a grip over.

"Just who is this Lord of Night?" Thunderbird asked feeling the tension suddenly grow thicker amongst the people who knew exactly what the being was.

"His real name is not known for a fact, but most believe that he was once a vampire called Varnae. Supposedly, the first vampire. No one can prove this though. As the story goes Varnae summoned demon after demon and merged them into himself. Some estimates suggest that he absorbed over a million demons. Varnae's power became tremendous and he created legions of vampires to spread chaos across Earth. A group of otherworldly wizards locked Varnae away before his influence became too strong. The damage had already been done though and over the years Earth degenerated into what it has become today," Elsa recounted.

"Then there is no way we can allow this monster to be bought back!" Mimic exclaimed. He never had a thing for demons. He had only told Blink of his encounter with Mephisto, but it had soured him to all hellspawn. Mephisto had kidnapped him and the Snowbird of his world. He tortured them with visions of dark futures, and ghosts of past mistakes. Snowbird went insane from it and it had taken Calvin months to get over what he had seen.

Clarice knew of Calvin's sensitivity and concern for him grew in her, "Do you have a map anywhere in here? If I see one I can get us to Tokyo in no time at all."

"There's no need for that Clarice. I can get us there using Selene. The only question that remains is who's all in for this little adventure?" Talia asked. She almost wished Proudstar would volunteer to stay behind. Sunfire and Morph had already been lost during this mission. She couldn't stand the thought of possibly losing any more people.

"There is no way I would let you do this alone Exiles. I'm coming," Elsa proclaimed.

"As am I," Northstar added.

Otto rose from his seat and wiped off his thick glasses with a thin white handkerchief. With a deep sigh he said, "I guess its time for me to unveil the Vampire Protocols I was working on."

"Vampire Protocols?" Elsa asked turning her head to give Otto a venomous stare. She hated it when secrets were kept from her.

"I've been working on them for quite some time. Just like I activated Northstar's X-Factor gene I've been doing the same with others," Otto revealed.

"What others? It's just been us. Everybody else we've rescued and bought into the fold has…you lied," Northstar said his mouth gaping open in reaction.

"I'm sorry Jean. I did lie. Those that you rescued never died on other missions. I've been keeping them all in stasis after activating their X-Factor genes. I wanted to have secret weapons against the vampires. It seems that it is time to unveil those I've kept hidden from you," Otto said turning his back to the group and walking towards what looked to be solid rock. Instead of crashing into the formation he simply passed through it.

"Follow him. It's time we uncover some secrets," Elsa groaned as she briskly walked through the wall.

"Anyone smelling tension?" Mimic asked with a bit of a chuckle. Blink quickly elbowed him in the ribs.

"Just follow Northstar and Elsa. This is none of our affair, but if it helps us stop the Lord of Night then so be it," Blink said.

"She's right. Let's go," Thunderbird replied with a little bit more anger than he had intended to display. Just the thought of people being trapped in chambers and being used as guinea pigs sickened him. It reminded him far too much of the ordeal he had went through under Apocalypse. One of his first missions under Apocalypse had been to infiltrate a base where Sinister was producing soldiers to kill him. The base was full of young children; none older than 9, and all of them had been genetically altered by Sinister. The Horsemen tore through the children without regard and that was just one more nightmare that haunted Proudstar at night.

Thunderbird was the first to step through the wall followed by Blink, Mimic, and then Nocturne. What they saw made one of them angry, had another reminiscing, had another wanting to puke, and one of them speechless. Five men and women were all hanging in mid-air with hundreds of tubes running through their bodies and large metal helmets covering half of their heads.

"What the hell is going on here?" Elsa asked her anger growing at the disgusting sight before her.

"I told you all I was keeping them in stasis. Some of them have unstable abilities. Like young Danielle. She brings fears to life and as such she'd be a hazard to our mission. By keeping them stasis I can steadily build up the resources to train them all properly. This mission is dire though and requires the release of some of my subjects," Otto replied.

"Don't free any of them!" Blink exclaimed.

"Why not? We're going to need them," Northstar replied.

Shaking her head Blink stood her ground, "No we're not. Don't release any of them. Even if we stop the Lord of Night this world will need protectors. I'm not going to waste any of them on our mission. We're the Exiles and we'll handle it."

"Doesn't mean we aren't coming along," Northstar said standing his ground just as firmly.

"Fine. Come on! Talia get us out of here," Blink ordered.

"Everyone hold on. This might sting a little," Nocturne warned.

Tokyo 

A quick flash of light in front of the Night Temple and in moments a group of heroes suddenly appeared a few feet above the ground. Much to their chagrin they all landed with unnecessarily hard thuds.

"Sorry guys. Still haven't gotten the hang of all her magic yet," Talia apologized.

"Okay. What exactly are we up against here?" Blink asked knowing that three people could probably answer her question.

"The High Priest Kirigi and a host of his vampire guards," Elsa replied.

"And don't forget his host of different monsters," Northstar reminded.

"He forms them from his flesh. He's a very powerful magician. We have to take him down to prevent the resurrection all together," Nocturne added.

"Then we need a big explosion. I want to hit this guy hard and fast. I rather not have to confront him directly. In fact I have an idea. How far away are we from the ocean?" Blink asked with a devilish smile.

"Only a few miles. You should be able to feel it out," Nocturne replied.

"Good. Get ready for things to get nasty quick then," Blink said as a portal formed above the temple and unknown to the others she had formed quite a few inside random places across the building itself. Each one of these portals had a corresponding portal in the Pacific that quickly began pouring tons of water into and on top of the building.

"INFIDELS!" a voice screeched from the building as a drenched man covered in a white cloak leaped from the building. It was Kirigi. High Priest of the Vampires. Landing on the ground with a loud quake he looked upon those who had prevented his ceremony with venom.

"Looks like we're going to have to take this guy to the cleaners," Mimic joked pulling up his sleeves.

"Guess so," Blink smiled eager for a fight.

"What's happening to you my friends?" Northstar asked as the Exiles were consumed by a bright yellow light.

Realizing what was happening Thunderbird yelled, "Not now!"

It was too late and in moments the Exiles had disappeared leaving Elsa and Northstar alone against the powerful Kirigi. An unconscious Selene laid next to them and unfortunately for them Talia no longer possessed her.

"You two have been nuisances to the vampire race for far too long," Kirigi grinned as he spread his arms out wide and all of his nagas sprang forth from them.

Elsewhere 

"You took us away too early Timebroker!" Blink yelled not being able to control herself. She had deterred Otto from releasing those had held captive. Perhaps if she hadn't Elsa and Northstar would stand a fighting chance. As it was now they were dead and all because of her.

"You accomplished your task and that is all I asked of you," Timebroker replied.

"Why did you pull us to your blank ass home anyway? And why didn't you send us replacements?" Mimic asked annoyed.

"I bought you here because some of you are going home," Timebroker said choosing not to answer the replacement question.

The shock of what Timebroker had said made everyone on edge, but no one dared ask who was going home because they knew some would be left behind. That pained every last one of them because it felt unfair that someone would have to stay and continue the fight while the rest of them got to go back home.

"I see none of you will ask me who is going home and that is fine. I understand that, but I will tell you. Talia, John, and Calvin you are all going home," Timebroker said.

Blink smiled at her teammates and gave all of them big hugs. After doing all of that she smiled, "You three take care of yourselves. Enjoy your homes. Cherish them. For me, alright?"

"If I could Timebroker I'd like to go home with Talia instead of going to my reality," Thunderbird requested squeezing Talia's hand and hoping he would get his wish.

Timebroker nodded, "Of course you can John. You have earned that much."

And with a wave of his hand Timebroker delivered everyone to his or her destinations. All save for Blink who still stood with her head hung a bit low.

"Do you hate me for not sending you home as well?" Timebroker asked.

"No. I'm just going to miss them is all," Blink replied.

"I understand, but I need you to be strong Clarice. You're going to be leading a raw team and things are only going to intensify more," Timebroker explained.

"What do you mean?"

"You will begin to have multiple missions on some worlds and I won't always be able to send in replacements now," Timebroker warned.

"Fine. Just give me my new team already," Blink demanded.

"I think I should tell you a bit about all of them before I do that. First off we have Stepstone. She's a version of Illyana Rasputin from a world where Shadow King had formed the X-Men. Then we have Hardcase. He's from a universe completely unfamiliar to you, but he served on a team called Ultraforce. After him is Mistress Strange. She's a version of Storm on a world where she was an apprentice of Dr. Strange. She probably won't get along very well with Bluestreak who is an alternate reality daughter of Quicksilver. The lady can be quite the joker. Finally, there is Reed von Doom who is the son of Doctor Doom in a reality where the good Doctor conquered the entire universe."

"You're giving me a hell of a squad here," Blink sighed just imagining the trouble she was going to have to deal with.

"You'll do fine Clarice," Timebroker smiled.

Epilogue 

Kirigi kneeled in front of the flooded temple and knew his life was over. The Council would never allow him to live after this failure. He was doomed, but at least he had eliminated Elsa and Northstar. Maybe that could redeem him some. It was a slim hope, but the High Priest had little else to hold onto.

"Don't despair yet Kirigi. I have an offer for you."

Jumping up at the sound of the voice Kirigi turned to it and was prepared to once again unleash his nagas on the strangely clothed man.

"Easy Priest. I'm Vange. And I promise that vengeance can be yours. You only need listen to me for a while."

**Next Issue: An insane Daredevil! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Insanity Reigns**

It seems so long ago that a time existed where every ounce of my being wasn't filled with festering hate. Back when Wyatt was alive and I held the Gold Medal for crime fighting. Wyatt Wingfoot, Sandman, and myself were feared by New York's criminal underworld. We had toppled Tony Twist, Black Mask, Rose, and King Bedlam. Only one bastard stood above all the rest. The man's soul was brimming over with greed and an undying lust for power. No matter how hard we fought him things always ended up being a stalemate. That was until he sent her after us.

Her name was Fatale and until this day I've never faced anyone with more skill. Using a device developed by Stark Industries she managed to turn William into a mud monster and me trapped within him. I struggled to get free because even though I was blind I could feel the murderous intent emanating off the woman. My struggling was worthless just like me.

Wyatt put up a good fight, but without William and myself he was less than whole. I remember beginning to smell the fear of Wyatt once he realized he wasn't getting any help. I don't know how many drunken nights I vomited and cried over that smell. She didn't prolong his fear though and ended his life quickly.

Watching his dead body plop to the ground let me know one thing. Kingpin had at long last broken our stalemate and he had won. Sandman was left in permanent disfigurement. Even Professor Howlett couldn't do anything for poor William. So he had himself locked in stasis until the day someone could help him.

Now I play by their rules. I kill them instead of handing them over to weak courts. Kingpin was the first to die and many others followed. Now I make my way to Chicago with Charlotte Jones in my sights. There won't be another Wyatt. I dare the devil to even try and let another innocent victim fall in my path.

Philadelphia 

"Did you really have to turn Moon Knight into a frog?" Bluestreak asked as she picked herself up off the pavement.

Mistress Strange crossed her eyes at Bluestreak, "I did what had to be done. He was about to strike Stepstone. Would you have preferred that I turned him to stone? What would have been to your liking?"

"Look all I'm saying is that maybe you should sit down with someone and have some quality time. Cuz if the first thing you think about doing to someone is turning them into a toad I think we have some issues there," Bluestreak said.

"And just who gave you a psychology degree?" Stepstone interjected. She appreciated the fact that Mistress Strange had covered her back no matter the method behind it. Mistress Strange reminded Illyana of the Storm of her world who had so tragically fallen in battle against Diablo. The two possessed the same tenacity and willingness to do whatever was necessary to achieve victory.

"If nothing she should have turned the whole lot of those inferior Defenders into toads," Reed von Doom added haughtily. He was now beginning to understand why his father, Victor von Doom, hated the heroes of his world so much.

"Maybe everyone forgot, but we were helping the bad guy back there," Bluestreak reminded. She wasn't comfortable with how her team seemed to so easily adjust to the fact that they had just got done helping a villain conquer Earth.

"We didn't forget. We just know what has to be done," Hardcase said walking towards his four teammates with Blink by his side. He didn't like helping Rune anymore than Bluestreak did but they couldn't afford to fail in what the Tallus requested of them.

"And the next time you disobey an order Bluestreak, I will personally kill you so I can get a better replacement," Blink barked. It was never something she would really do, but Bluestreak was one person who could grate on Clarice's nerves to no end. If she wasn't pissing off Mistress Strange, she was playing a joke on Stepstone or complaining how much the Tallus sucks.

Mistress Strange smiled smugly at Blink's comment. It had been a long time and it was sorely needed. On her world she had been treated with the highest level of respect. Dealing with Bluestreak's wanton disrespect was nearly unbearable and it was taking the Sorceress Supreme everything she had to not send Bluestreak into the Realms of Xavier.

Hardcase felt bad for Bluestreak. The young woman had a good heart and playful soul. While she wouldn't admit it he could tell the stress of the things the Exiles had to do was getting to her. Acting like a goof ball and being a general pain was her way of working off the stress. It wasn't a particularly helpful way, but it was obviously the only way Bluestreak knew how.

Stepstone cared nothing for Bluestreak. The blood of Quickgold ran through her veins and that was enough to stir distrust in Illyana even if it was an alternate Pietro. She could see the man in her eyes and Stepstone wanted to strike it down. Quickgold and his Mutant Guard had kidnapped and tortured her little sisters for three days until they finally died. Then he blew up Farouk Tower killing Shinobi, Roberto, and Kamikaze. She had been engaged to Kamikaze and their wedding was supposed to have been in three days. It was the greatest blow of her life and now if she didn't succeed in the Exiles her older brother Colossus would die in the explosion as well.

"Look boss I wasn't about to let that statue fall on Gambit's head. That's just not the type of person I am," Bluestreak explained truly believing that would be enough of an excuse.

"Let me tell you one thing I've learned about being an Exile. You might as well throw out any assumptions about yourself because if you're part of this thing long enough you're going to do plenty of things that don't fit into the type of person you are," Blink replied the tone of her voice chilling the air. Clarice was still reeling from the loss of most her team only a few missions ago. She lamented Sunfire and Morph greatly, but the others she felt joy for. One couldn't help but to get lonely though. With them they had been together so long that they were all quite close. Now she felt like an outsider having to lead a bunch of new folks who didn't quite mesh like her old team use to.

Everyone stood their silent wrapped up in their own thoughts. Each of them recalled a time when they hadn't lived up to expectations of themselves. For Reed von Doom it was when he had to slaughter a planet full of children being trained by his father to become soldiers. That act had earned him the hate of his father and the scorn of the last remaining heroes he had taken as allies. For Stepstone it was when she forced Quickgold to choose between the lives of his two sons as she held them over a cliff. It had been only a day after the Farouk attack. Ultimately, Pietro chose and one of his children died that day. The screams of that child still haunted Illyana. For Hardcase it was when he used mind control technology to create the largest gang war in history. He had done it all so Ultraforce could regain their credibility in the public eye by stopping the violence. Mistress Strange knew her greatest sin was stealing the power of Kale, Clea, Mordo, Harkness, and Calizuma. It had made her Sorceress Supreme at long last, but had cost her a great deal of credibility. Blink and Bluestreak both felt they had greater sins to commit yet.

"The Tallus just told me our mission," Blink said breaking the period of reflection.

"Don't keep us in suspense," Bluestreak, daughter of Quicksilver, begged falsely.

"This world has an insane Daredevil who is slaughtering crime bosses. We're supposed to stop him from killing Charlotte Jones. That's our first objective. Our second objective is to find Elektra and warn her that Rose has sent assassins after her."

"Couldn't we just split up for this one and get things done quicker?" Stepstone asked not seeing any kind of difficulty in the objectives that had been handed to them.

Blink shook her head in disagreement sternly, "Not a chance. We have no idea what powers the Daredevil of this world has and we have no idea how Elektra might react to us. I'm not assuming anything here. Assumption could end up with us all dead."

Assuming is what Blink and the others had done on that vampire world. It had ended up with Morph and Sunfire dead. Losing them hurt as much as losing the teammates of her own world. Clarice's life had been a parade of death and she had a feeling that the parade had barely begun to play their music and throw its beads.

"So what do you suggest we do then Blink?" Reed von Doom asked as he materialized a nail filer from thin air and went to work on his right hand.

"Mistress Strange can you do a location spell and find Charlotte Jones?" Blink asked hoping that the answer would be a positive one.

Ororo flew into the air and raised her arms up high. She wasn't sure how the magical nature of this world flowed, but she hoped it would be attuned to her own. Her abilities would be of great use to end this mission quickly and head on to the next world.

"Sons of Sandu give me the sight to find the one called Charlotte Jones across this great vastness. Sons of Sandu give me the sight," Mistress Strange mumbled as a red aura surrounded her body. The aura remained for a few minutes before the sorceress descended to the ground.

"Are all your spells that dramatic?" Bluestreak asked.

"Only for one with such a small brain," Mistress Strange replied.

"I wonder who much of that smack will last after I knock your head around at Mach-1?" Bluestreak spat.

"If you two ladies are done exploding estrogen everywhere…can we get back to work please?" Hardcase asked begging.

"You're lucky he asked nicely. Let me make this clear. Bicker when we have downtime. Right now we have a mission before us. Anymore being smartasses to each other and I will personally make sure you get replaced. Get my drift?" Blink exclaimed gripping one of her darts tightly.

"I can probably do ten times as much as you and ten times as fast. I don't need you giving me grief all the time," Bluestreak snapped. As she did she barely missed a javelin that was thrown at her by none other than Blink.

"I will not have any more back talk! I'm the leader of this team and that's final," Blink yelled before turning to Mistress Strange, "So where are we headed?"

"Ms. Jones is in Chicago."

"Good that's where we're going then," Blink commanded.

Chicago 

William Stryker had been working under Charlotte Jones as her right hand man for over ten years now. In those years he had never been more afraid for his life than he was now. The infamous Daredevil had put his boss in his sights and Stryker knew nothing good could ever come from that. He hated to say it, but he wasn't expecting his boss to be alive for much longer.

"You can come in now William," Jones said as her lieutenant of sorts walked through the door a little more timidly than normal. Seeing this disturbance she asked, "What's the problem William?"

"I'm just concerned for your safety right now. Daredevil is really dangerous and could do a lot of damage," William said.

"Believe me I know. That's why I've hired the London Three."

William stopped dead in his tracks and just stared at the middle aged black woman, "You mean Psylocke…"

"Black Knight and Mindwarp. Yep those three. They're going to help me take down Daredevil and solidify my place as top dog across the nation. You're looking at the new Kingpin," Charlotte smiled.

"You sound pretty confident boss, but what if those three can't beat Daredevil. What then?"

"Do you have any idea of the reputations of these guys? Mindwarp took down an Avengers team all his own and killed every last one of them. Psylocke assassinated Xavier and Magneto without even trying."

"And Black Knight detained the Hulk and sold his DNA on the black market. Yes I know they're not to be reckoned with, but neither is Daredevil. Remember how Garrison Kane hired Absorbing Man and Diablo to protect him?" William asked knowing that his question would bring back memories into his boss' mind. She had been a former lover of Kane and hearing of his death had opened her eyes to just how dangerous Daredevil was.

"What do you suggest I do then William? Run?" Charlotte inquired trying to fight back her tidal wave of frustration. She knew that Stryker was only looking out for her best interests and getting mad at him really wasn't going to help anything at all.

"That's the only reasonable option. If you run maybe the Daredevil will decide to chase someone else."

"I can't live off maybes William. No, we're staying here. The London Three will have to work," Charlotte said.

"You think he's coming anytime soon?" Black Knight asked holding his Obsidian Blade at his side as he stood at the edge of the rooftop. Playing watchdog for Charlotte Jones wasn't exactly his idea of a prestigious job, but fighting Daredevil was going to be great.

"He'll be here. He never backs down from a kill," Psylocke said practicing with her katana. She had rendered Black Widow's head clean off with the weapon.

Her brother Jamie aka Mindwarp loved watching his sister in action. The way she wielded the sword made him think of their father in his prime, "Yea and when he comes I'll turn his organs to goo."

"Come now luv. You gotta let the rest of us have a bit of fun," Psylocke grinned.

"Fun. Oh we're going to have a ton of that," Daredevil laughed as he leaped into the middle of the London Three.

"Bout time you showed up. I was starting to get antsy over here," Black Knight said as he charged forward and cut Daredevil across the chest with his Obsidian Blade. It revealed a bit of black armor underneath that made Dane quickly back pedal, "You…have the Armor of Strange?"

"You're damn skippy. How else do you think I got the drop on Diablo and Absorbing Man?" Daredevil asked grinning in a most ironic manner. He was grinning like a devil.

"Doesn't make a lick of difference mate. You're going down!" Psylocke yelled as she stabbed Daredevil in the back. Her sword went straight through the armor and popped out of his chest.

"Betsy no!" Black Knight yelled, but his warning had come too late.

Psylocke's body and her sword began to lose their color and in only moments she had turned to salt along with her weapon. The wound she had inflicted on Daredevil healed instantly and with a swift kick he sent the pile of salt that was Betsy Braddock flying into the air.

"You bastard!" Mindwarp yelled as he used his illusionary abilities to make Daredevil see hundreds of tiny scorpions crawling over his body.

"Its no good. Illusions have no effect on him," Black Knight said.

"Then what will hurt that freak?" Mindwarp asked beginning to fear his sister's fate would befall him as well.

Five pink javelins flew by the heads of the now London Two and struck Daredevil square in the chest. Pink temporal energy arced across the fearless man's body and sent him to the ground in convulsions. Black Knight smiled, "Looks like that will hurt him."

"Are you two alright?" Blink asked as she landed on the rooftop with precision. Following behind her were the rest of the Exiles.

"We're fine. Who are you? Are you with SHIELD?" Mindwarp asked ready to put his powers to work again.

"No. They can't be. Look who's with them," Black Knight said pointing at Stepstone. The Illyana Rasputin of his memory had been one of the most vicious members of the Russian based Supreme Masters. She had taken down an entire troop of Ru'Tai without breaking a sweat. If she was here Daredevil really must have become a threat.

"Look we're from different realities. We have a mission. Take down Daredevil," Blink explained pointing towards the direction of the fallen hero.

"He wears the Armor of Strange. Only thing that can dispel it is the Soulsword. Unfortunately that weapon was destroyed years ago," Black Knight sighed.

"Luckily I have my own," Magik said as she walked over to Daredevil prepared to cut him in two.

"Hold on! There is an easier solution to all of this," Reed von Doom said pulling out a tiny blue cube from the interdimensional hole inside of his black glove, "From what it seems like Daredevil is just a hero who's lost his way. Killing him won't make things right."

"And your little toy cube will how?" Jamie asked anger beginning to simmer up in him. This madman had just killed his sister and whomever this techno clad fool was wanted to ignore that.

"It's going to put him in a state of stasis indefinitely and thereby preventing the death of Daredevil," Reed explained as he unleashed the cube from his hand. The object flew forward and struck Daredevil. The unconscious body disappeared somewhere only Reed von Doom would know.

"And if there's a problem with that I suggest you keep it to yourself," Blink warned.

Bluestreak took a cautious gulp, "Before we go around throwing any punches anybody know where Elektra is at?"

"Elektra Summers?" Black Knight asked.

"I was thinking more along the lines of Natchios, but whatever fits," Bluestreak laughed.

"She's in Romania. Serving as Protectorate for President Zemo," Mindwarp informed.

Mistress Strange sighed, "Zemo of all people. I hope we do not encounter him."

Stepstone wanted to counter Strange's comment, but decided to hold her tongue. The Zemo of her world had been a great man. He had unified many of the broken countries of Southern Europe after the Brood Invasion. Along with the X-Men they worked to bring stability to the horribly changed continent.

"Our focus is Elektra. Not Zemo," Blink reminded.

"With that said, we need to get going. I don't want to spend the night on this world if we don't have to. The accomdations don't seem suitable for my tastes," Reed von Doom remarked.

A pink portal opened up only a few feet away from where the body of Daredevil had been.

"Let's go. Right now," Blink commanded.

"Nice talking to you fellas," Bluestreak waved as she zoomed into the portal.

"Forgive her sense of formalities," Reed von Doom said as he flew forward into the portal.

As the last of the Exiles departed Black Knight looked to Mindwarp, "Yea this is going down in my list of weird experiences."

Interlude 

"Wake up Daredevil!"

"Who are you?"

"My name is Vange. You're sleeping. Against your will."

"How? Why?"

"Some have doubted your crusade. I don't. Let me help you."

"What's the catch?"

"Help me in my crusade as well."

**Next Issue: Sinister world opens up with a bang. **


	4. Chapter 4

A Sinister Land…Pt.1 

Philadelphia had been one of the few cities where humans still resided in North America. Sinister had been constantly bombarding it with his mutant troops and the newly formed Liberation Front was the only resistance against these forces. Terra had been the founder and leader of the Liberation Front. So it was to her that the entire city looked to when word that the Brotherhood was coming to the city. The group had been fighting in Siam for months and was renowned for their deadly abilities. To say that the Liberation Front was in the fight for their life was putting it lightly.

"You really think these guys are just going to stroll up the street?" Husk asked.

"Yea I mean they aren't that bold are they?" Skin added. He had traveled cross-country from the Neurotap ruled Los Angeles and made his way to Philadelphia. Angelo was one of many wanted criminals in the empire of Essex.

"They're the Brotherhood. Not only are they that bold they are that fierce. We have to be at the top of our game if we have any hope of defeating them," Terra said floating above her teammates on a large piece of rock.

"Which means it's not time for you to be goofing off Chamber," Impulse warned. His entire family had been taken from Metro City when it was converted into a giant gas chamber for humans. He had narrowly escaped the wrath of Shatterstar and when Bart had slain Feral he earned the hate of Essex.

"Me? Come on you know me better than that," Chamber smiled goofishly. His powers had once wrecked the upper half of his body, but Dr. Maddicks (one of North America's last human geneticists) had healed his mutation. The only body scarring that remained on Jono was the scar across his right cheek he had received from Pike. That mark had been returned ten fold by Terra.

"That's the problem right there," Speedball said.

"Seriously," Bolt added. His body was more mechanical than human after the horrible experience he had suffered against Voice of Doom. He knew the consequences of losing. Chris was only alive today because Terra had risked it all to save him.

"Heads up guys. Here they come," Terra, said her voice a mixture of preparation and somberness.

Only a block away from the Liberation Front was the six members of the Brotherhood. Terra had never revealed it but every member of that team had killed someone that she knew and cared for. Killer Frost had brutally froze Chance's organs and left her to suffer a horrible death. Trapster had flooded the esophagus of Gomi with slow burning glue. Resurrection Man and Midnighter strung out the guts of Cordelia Frost in front of her older sister in Rome. Ray decapitated the Wonder Twins in Morocco, but it was Raven that Terra hated the most. She had killed both of Terra's siblings in front of her. Then to only torture her more she let the fiendish Horde inhabit the bodies with his disgusting leeches.

That had been the day that Terra decided that the violence and war that Essex propagated throughout the world had to cease through any means necessary. No longer would she have any qualms about maiming, killing, and torturing. She would do what had to be done to save her world from utter destruction. This fight was the summation of all that Terra had worked for. She knew that her team could make no error.

"Well, look what we have here. Little Terra is still around. Figured you'd be trying to track down Horde by now," Raven smiled as she floated at the front of her group.

Terra smiled and sent pillars of earth flying from the ground underneath the Brotherhood members. Resurrection Man disappeared in a flash of lightning and Midnighter dodged the slabs of rock with expert skill. Ray simply blasted his way through the rocks making his way towards the Liberation Front. The attack was one that Raven would turn on the young group of would be heroes.

"Hezzabeth netrium katal!" Raven yelled as black energy wrapped around all the rocks that Terra had produced. The large sediments broke into hundreds of pieces and were flung at the Liberation Front with the speed of a runaway train.

Terra threw up a shield of rock to protect herself, but not all her teammates were so fortunate. Chamber blasted and dodged a few of the shrapnel pieces, but was impaled through the abdomen by a larger one. Blood spurted from the wound and Jono flew backwards. He was dead before hitting the ground. Skin suffered a similar fate as a rock spear stabbed him through the forehead and went clear through his skull. Husk's metal body prevented any kind of penetration from Raven's latest weapons and Speedball protected Impulse and Bolt with a kinetic forcefield.

Dropping her rock shield Terra leapt off her hovering rock and flew towards Raven. Rock spikes popped up into the air each of them trying to rip Raven in two. The ruthless Brotherhood member dodged all of them and blasted the one she couldn't. Terra caught a ride on one of her spikes and rode it until she was at Raven's back. Leaping into the air once more she wrapped her arms around Raven's neck and began to pull her to the ground.

"You're going down bitch!" Terra yelled.

"Not really," Raven sighed nonchalantly as she felt a sudden drop in temperature.

The entire body of Terra had been turned into ice by a blast from the white skinned Killer Frost. Maniacal laughter came from the woman as Raven broke off Terra's body with a quick spell, "Oh you're just the best Raven! We must have really pleased Essex to be handed such easy prey."

"Definitely easy prey," Midnighter exclaimed as he flung the dead body of Bolt high into the air.

"You bastard!" Husk cried as she slammed a titanium fist into the black clad warrior.

Midnighter went flying back and his mouth refused to speak from the pain of a shattered jaw. Fighting back this pain, as he learned from Stick, Midnighter launched four star shaped objects into the air. Each of the objects struck Husk dead in the torso, but instead of piercing her skin they melted into it. Paige's body began to glow a wide spectrum of colors before it began to melt. No scream could even match the pain that the young woman was feeling.

Impulse would have come to Husk's aid, but struggling with the pain of having no legs was occupying his team. Ray had cut his appendages clean off and left him for dead. Bart could barely stay conscious let alone help his friend.

"Ahh isn't that sad. Little man needs some comforting," Trapster taunted as he held the head of Speedball. Reaching down the wielder of various sticky substances lifted Bart's head up to the decapitated Robbie and made them kiss, "Do you feel better now? All kissy kissy."

Impulse spat up the blood from Robbie's mouth that he had taken in. He couldn't believe that it was ending like this. All their hard work and dreams had been evaporated by the Brotherhood. Nothing was left of their hopes for a better world. Despite himself, Bart Allen began to cry and the tears wouldn't stop flowing.

As Trapster pointed his gun at Bart's head the last of the Liberation Front hoped it came to a quick end.

Egypt 

"We're ten seconds from the crossing point! Keep quiet and move quickly," Silver Sable commanded in a hushed tone as she approached the bridge under which their captured teammate, Dr. Light, was soon to cross. Two days ago Selene had taken him captive and the Avengers were determined to set him free before the interrogators got to him.

"So I guess that means I go small," Maul complained as he shifted from his gargantuan purple-skinned state into that of a slim Asian male.

"Don't feel too bad man. We've been doing too much hardcore fighting anyway," Wildcat said. He had been fighting in the war against the empire of Essex for quite some time. He remembered the years before Sinister took over and just how peaceful the world really was back then.

"Hardcore fighting my ass! I've barely begun to bust some heads," US Agent exclaimed. After America's fall what remained of the government went overseas and started to create potential weapons in the hopes of taking back their country from the mad scientist. John had been one of the most successful of these experiments. By the time he was created though Sinister had amassed a great deal of troops making a lone solider useless.

"Shut up!" Black Widow hissed. She grew more and more tired of the American's macho attitude. The pride of his country had been deeply wounded by Sinister and as such he tried his best to hide that embarrassment. His attempts were hardly working.

Vostok knew of the reputation of Black Widow as they both had served on the Protectorate Elite. They had been a group formed by Russia to strike Sinister on the West Coast of the United States. They successfully infiltrated the country, but the Marauders decimated the team. Vostok and Natasha were only alive today because of Perun hurling them out into the ocean as Wolverine stabbed him through the chest. Natasha had kept his heavy metal body afloat and he owed his life to her. Seeing her annoyed made him feel the same emotion as well.

"You guys could wake the dead," a robotic voice said as he cocked his gun.

All the Avengers turned to see the deadliest of Sinister's Marauders staring them in the face. Deathstroke was a name that was forbidden to say in most free countries. He was a man that had never lost a fight in his entire life. When he led the armies of Sinister most opposition simply retreated. So no one would have blamed the Avengers if they ran and left Dr. Light behind. They were heroes though and heroes were at their best when staring death in the face.

"Attack Plan Zeta!" Silver Sable yelled as she reared back her Moonraker laser gun and fired off multiple shots into the chest plate of Deathstroke.

Wildcat crouched low to the ground and hit Deathstroke in the knees hoping to take him down, but instead it felt like he had slammed into a steel wall. The middle-aged man fell to the ground not being able to feel most of his body. The armor of Deathstroke had emitted a tiny sonic wave that numbed the muscles of anyone that even slightly touched it. Wildcat had just fallen victim to the armor.

"Is that the best you—UMPHH!" Deathstroke yelled as he went flying back into the air and slammed into the hard rocky ground.

"Trust me we haven't even started fighting!" US Agent said. His muscles were tense, his adrenaline moving like the wheels of a locomotive, and sweat beaded furiously down his brow. The living weapon hadn't felt this alive in years. Lifting his Star Spangled Banner colored shield into the air he flung the weapon at the Marauder hoping to cut his head clean off.

Deathstroke dodged out of the way of the shield only to find his head being engulfed by the giant hand of Maul, "You look down. How about I cheer you up!"

With that comment the size controller flipped Deathstroke into the air at a speed that would have broke a normal man's neck, but the Marauder was no normal man. As he was flying into the air he pulled a needle from the wrist of his armor and sent his flying towards Maul with extreme precision. The object struck the beast in the neck and it was a blow that he had hardly felt. Just like Deathstroke had intended.

"Vostok go to work!" Silver Sable commanded. The metal man simply nodded and lifted his hands to the air to gain control of Deathstroke's armor. Instead the liquid metal that composed the Russian's body began to lose all solidity.

An inaudible scream came from Vostok as he sunk into a puddle form. Deathstroke landed on the ground and on his feet only a short time after Vostok's decommissioning, "The Russian made the mistake of trying to control my armor. The metals of this armor were forged by Sinister hence they are organic to some degree. They taught the Russian not to try and control them."

"Bastard!" Maul yelled as he bulldozed towards the Marauder. Holding up his black-gloved hand Deathstroke simply snapped and stopped Maul in his tracks.

He turned back towards the Avenger with a grin, "I stuck you with a needle that would freeze and disintegrate your cells upon my command. I hope it's not too painful."

Black Widow was seeing flashbacks of the battle in San Diego. Deathstroke had killed her husband, Red Guardian, with a simple snap of the neck. Fantasma had been their team's only hope of defeating any of the Marauders, but in the midst of the fight she turned turncoat. It didn't take long for the rest of the Protectorate Elite to fall. These thoughts of the past had frozen Black Widow stiff.

"Pull it together Natasha! We're the last ones left," Silver Sable bellowed trying to get through to the statuesque Black Widow. Sable knew that the Avengers as she knew it were through, but she'd be damned if Deathstroke didn't take a few good licks. Firing off her Moonraker again the hero of San Marco hoped to at least malfunction the devil's armor.

At the last moment Deathstroke switched places with the unconscious Wildcat with a teleportation device. Silver Sable's blasts killed one of Sinister's oldest resistors instantly. The silver haired woman was horrified at what she had done and dropped her weapon as a result. She knew it was over and so fell to the ground on her knees waiting for it to come to an end.

"You piece of shit!" US Agent yelled as charged up behind Deathstroke only to be incarnated once he got within a few feet of the Marauder.

Yawning Deathstroke stretched his arms upward, "Intense heat fields can do wonders."

"Just finish it already," Silver Sable said rising slowly off her knees.

Laughing Deathstroke shook his head, "My dear I have much more delectable plans for you rather than death."

**Tunisia**

"If Pyro had said one more nasty word to me I swear," Stepstone groaned as she fought back the urge to vomit. Each world jump was a bit jaunting for the team and complaining about the last mission was the only way to keep from spilling her food.

"Your feelings are the last thing on my mind right now. I'm hungry as hell," Bluestreak replied as she felt a strong rumble surge through her stomach. The engine was definitely in need of oil.

"Hunger? What an abstract concept," Reed von Doom laughed as threw what remained of his black cloak off of his shoulder. Neophyte had burned a good chunk out of it with that flamethrower and it was simply too tacky to be worn now. At least he didn't have issues like hunger and sleep to worry about. His father had made sure his genetic structure would rid him of those needs at birth.

"While you may lack hunger you don't lack the ability to smell. The lot of you haven't taken showers in days. I suggest we find some suitable lodging to clean yourselves in," Mistress Strange commented squinting up her nose as she did so.

Hardcase shook his head in disbelief, "Well, if you shared some of that magic to help us all smell better we wouldn't be in this situation now would we."

"I see no point in wasting my precious magic on any of you," Mistress Strange replied.

"Then shut the hell up about us taking showers!" Blink yelled.

"I just hope this world has Burger King," Bluestreak complained gripping her stomach.

"What the hell is Burger King?" Stepstone asked.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me! Man your world is just lame," Bluestreak laughed. Before she knew it the Soulsword was pointed at her throat.

"Watch your tongue!" Stepstone hissed. Every last one of those three words was filled with bitter venom.

"I was just joking! Sheesh!" Bluestreak defended.

"Calm down Illyana," Blink ordered. She knew the last mission had gotten to Illyana. Mikhail had been one of the members of The Vault that they had to fight. Bluestreak had been the one to reluctantly take Mikhail out of the fight. As much as she joked around the young woman still took the feelings of her teammates into consideration. She was probably the most considerate of the team and Clarice was finally beginning to notice it.

Lightning struck in the midst of the Exiles and nearly singed Reed. Above the air was a Mohawk clad Storm wearing a traditional biker's outfit, "Who the hell are you?"

**Moscow**

"Where are we at?" Marcus Pezzini asked. Every jump gave him a problem as the Witchblade wanted to act up differently in every dimension. His mother, Sara, had taught him well in the various uses of his weapon. Though Marcus knew that it was unpredictable no matter how long one held it. The weapon had acted on its own in killing his father, Ian Nottingham.

"I have no idea," Fantomex replied. He kept his guns ready after the last world they had been on. Polaris had nearly brought down the Sears Towers atop all their heads. The former Weapon X operative was not going to be caught unaware again.

Darkness attempted to feel where their location was using his abilities, but he could not attain any precise location. On his world he had been the only guardian against the darkness and used his abilities to send "tendrils" into the very surface of the Earth so as to monitor it. He couldn't do the same thing on this world. Something was blocking him from doing so.

"Did you feel anything Estcado?" Vargas asked brandishing his golden broadsword. The weapon had been forged in the Fires of Mephisto and so was endowed with many different abilities.

"I couldn't feel anything. My powers aren't working right. Perhaps Cannonball should fly overhead and see if anything looks familiar," Darkness said.

"No need for that. You're in Moscow. I'm going to need for you to explain who you are though and why I shouldn't kill you all right now," Iron Man said as he descended from the air.

"Ahh hell not another one of them guys," She-Hulk groaned. On her world there was never a Tony Stark or anyone carrying the mantra of Iron Man. Since being with Weapon X, she was starting to grow insanely tired of this character. The last world they had been to had an army of Iron Men who ruled the entire solar system. Never had she been more tired of a single face.

**Korea**

Superman was one of Essex's most prized "children". Mole Man in the fields of Kansas had first found the young infant. The soldier of Sinister fought tooth and nail to deliver this heaven sent child to Essex. Justin Hammer as consequence of it killed him. Sinister saw the potential of this young child and molded him into a weapon of pure destruction. Now this super man lead a group of those who powers were like his. They were called Factor X and had been the scourge of this peninsula for some time.

"Surrender whoever you all are!" Superman ordered as he prepared to blast the Mr. Majestic look alike down. The real Majestic was behind him along with Supergirl, Supreme, Suprema, and Prime.

Mr. Majestic had been leading The Titans for Timebroker for some time and he had yet to encounter an alternate version of himself. This was his first encounter with one and he had to admit he wasn't impressed. The guy looked like a complete and total pushover.

"Surrender? This guy must not know whom he's talking to," Lady Death laughed as she ripped out her Scythe of Lilith. From the point of the weapon flew forth a giant blast of necromantic energy. The purple energy streaked across the air and slammed into Superman knocking him through his charges and into the air.

Knockout looked to her husband, Superboy, and could tell that fighting Superman and Supergirl was going to be disturbing for him. He had come from a world where he was the last of his kind so to speak. An invasion by Martians had killed all the Super clan, leaving Superboy alone. He was different from the rest of his people in that he was an extremely powerful telekinetic.

"Baby I think its time you went to work on this guys," Knockout suggested as she watched the splintered Factor X regroup themselves.

"If he doesn't hurry up I'll knock them to the sun!" Dr. Solar exclaimed. Knockout had learned to deal with Solar's rashness. The man had come from a world completely overrun by aliens who feasted on human eyes. His people had become food and nothing more. It wasn't hard to understand why he was pissed all the time.

Superboy reached out with his TK and stopped the circulatory systems of all the Factor X members knocking them out cold. If they had been lesser beings they would all be dead, but each of them possessed tremendous strength. Mr. Majestic looked back to Superboy and gave a confident nod, "Good job Superboy."

"We need to move tho. I'll provide us with cover," Invisible Skrull said, but before he could whip out his invisibility net he was frozen solid.

"No one move!" Mr. Freeze ordered pointing his gun directly at Superboy, "And don't even think about trying anything or your green friend will never return from his frozen state!"


	5. Chapter 5

A Sinister Land…Pt. 2 

"Sinister rules this world with an iron grip. It's insane. We've all been fighting him for years now, but we've barely put a dent into his forces. We knock down ten and he makes a thousand more," Storm explained having to fight back tears. Fighting in a war for most of your life wore on the soul and Ororo's soul had long been in need of a tune up.

"I'm sorry to hear that Storm. All of us have seen worlds that were in need of aid and just couldn't seem to get it," Blink replied trying to keep from sounding too optimistic or pessimistic. The Tallus still hadn't given the team their mission yet and so Clarice had to be careful what she said. For all they knew their mission could be to kill Storm.

Storm sighed deeply, "The aid for our world shrinks more and more everyday. Only a few hours ago a group of young heroes, the Liberation Front, were slaughtered by the Brotherhood."

Hearing of young heroes being slaughtered bought up a memory in Stepstone. It had been in the beginnings of her X-Men leadership.

"Are you sure about this Illyana?" Siena asked.

"Trust me. I'm more than sure," Stepstone replied as she walked with her sword on her shoulder. She had bought her X-Men (Siena Blaze, Astrid Bloom, Wild Child, Fantomex, Kamikaze, and Longshot) to Chicago where there had been reports of a massive attack by Quickgold and the Mutant Guard.

The reports had been right. Uptown Chicago was no more. It was nothing short of a hole in the ground. Whatever Quickgold had done here it would take years and years to recover from. Stepstone looked out into the devastation and fought to gain her breath. One question plagued her mind, but she struggled not to ask herself it.

"Where the hell are the New Warriors?" Astrid asked trying to use her telepathy to seek out the group of young heroes.

"I'll look for them in the air," Kamikaze suggested, but before he could take off into the air Stepstone held up her hand.

"We have to stick together. This is Quickgold people. Lets not forget what happened in Metro City," Stepstone warned. Only a month ago Quickgold and his Mutant Guard attacked Metro City and immediately the Avengers (Wasp, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, and Super Skrull) were sent in. The Avengers were losing terribly until Stepstone and the X-Men showed up to turn the tide. Still over one million people had fallen in the attack. Quickgold gained true notoriety that day.

"That doesn't help me have much hope for the New Warriors," Astrid sighed. One of her best friend's children, Aegis, was on the team. If something had happened to him she had no idea how she would explain it to his mother. She would be heartbroken. To make matters worse Astrid had been the one to convince his mother to let the boy into the super heroic life. She would only have herself to blame if he was now dead. Astrid could only pray that wasn't the case.

"I smell them. They're a few yards away. Probably under that rubble over there," Wild Child said pointing to a pile of concrete chunks.

"Can you tell if they're alive?" Siena asked using her magnetic abilities to rip away at the concrete chunks with metal in them.

"Nope," Wild Child lied. He knew they were all dead and had been that way for hours, but he couldn't be the one to hurt Astrid. She cared so much for that Aegis kid. Losing him might push her over the edge again and the last time that had happened she nearly took her own life. Kyle never wanted to see her in that state again.

Astrid unintentionally felt the strong surface thought of Wild Child and the repugnant smell of death he had truly picked up on, "Don't lie Kyle. They're dead aren't they?"

Wild Child looked back with sorrowful eyes, "Yea. Yea they are."

"Earth to Stepstone! Anyone home!" Bluestreak asked waving her hand in front of Illyana's face.

Snapping back to reality Stepstone shook her head, "Yea I'm fine. I was just thinking about something."

"We've been through some rough spots lately," Blink said apologizing for Stepstone's zoning off.

Storm smiled weakly, "Believe me I understand. Everyday is hell on this world. You can't help but to want and dream."

"But dreaming is not going to get us anywhere. In fact I don't know why we aren't out there fighting right now," Cortez interrupted. In his mind the only way he saw things getting better was by fighting. His abilities allowed his teammates to become far more powerful than they normally would be and made the soldiers of Sinister less effective. Fabian knew he could be a turning point in this war and he was tired of not being able to act like it.

"The boy is right. The only way to ever achieve anything is to go out there and snatch it," Mistress Strange added.

"What's the Nucleus?" Blink asked as a dead silence and dreadful looks fell over all the X-Men Gold team.

Amelia Voght gulped before asking, "What did you just say?"

"The Nucleus. It's what we've been sent here to destroy. What is it?" Blink asked again as disturbed looks crossed from Voght to Mesmero.

"It's Sinister's personal version of Hell and no one yet has found a way to destroy it. Believe me I've tried," Mesmero answered.

"Well, past failure notwithstanding we can't leave this world until that place is destroyed. So I suggest you X-Men stop pussyfooting around and give us the details!" Reed von Doom exclaimed. He could see the fear in these mutants' eyes and he wanted to rip it out of them. How could they soldiers in a war of this magnitude acting like scared school children? In his world it had been just him and The Last Marvels (Silver Surfer, Thor, Nick Fury, Black Bolt, and Charcoal) against the whole of his father's empire. Never once did they falter in their task like these X-Men were doing now.

Lightning streaked out from Storm's eyes, "I don't think I like your attitude much!"

"Everyone stop! I'll give you all you need to know Exiles," Mesmero said taking a seat in a beat up plastic chair. His eyes seemed to go into a trance as he began to tell his tale.

"I once had my own team of X-Men. Our last mission was to take down The Nucleus and free everyone within the fortress. Deus was providing us with telepathic cover. Babylon was serving as the scout to make sure our vantage points were clear. Radian kept any and all transmission signals scrambled. Payne, Yurike, and Spectra struck from the east. Jaunt and myself came from the north. Infiltrating the base was easy, but we should have known better. When we all met up hell was unleashed. Spectra was a traitor."

Stepstone's attention perked up at the mention of Spectra being a traitor. The Spectra of her world had joined the team shortly after the Chicago attack. It was her that had given Quickgold the necessary information that allowed him to destroy Farouk Tower killing her fiancée. Illyana was now convinced. No Spectra in any reality was worth the trouble.

Even as Stepstone remembered past betrayals Mesmero continued his tale, "We tried to fight, but we were up against one of Sinister's best. Martian Manhunter was in charge of the facility and he was as ruthless as they came. Payne and Deus luckily managed to overcome Manhunter and I killed him. That was luck though and it was even more luck that I was the only one to survive the battle. I was locked up in the Nucleus and made a guinea pig for more than three years. Storm and her team saved me, but at the cost of Wisdom's life. The Nucleus is death given form. There is no escaping it and there is no destroying it."

"You escaped it Mesmero. Nothing is that desperate," Hardcase said more to reassure himself than anyone else. He wasn't a stranger to desperate situations. Ultraforce had been trapped on the Dakkamite homeworld for two years fighting a desperate battle to get back home. Prime had died on that world and there wasn't a day that went by that Hardcase didn't see that young man's agonized expression.

"I never escaped it. It's always in here," Mesmero said tapping his head.

"Either way. We don't leave this world until the Nucleus comes down," Blink replied her voice a bit more forceful than intended.

"Fine Blink. Have it your way, but this is going to have to be a major operation to succeed. We're going to need more than just our two groups," Storm said with just as much force as Clarice.

Korea 

Lady Death knew that her team was in some deep shit at the moment. She could probably strike against this ice-clad clown and put a hurting to him, but that would mean risking Superboy's life. Without being told she already knew that Mr. Majestic was not going to take that chance. So they were pretty much going to have to wait for an opening and do what this overzealous ice lover wanted them to.

"You all have much to tell my master. And me," Mr. Freeze smiled as his black armor began to tingle and barely seen ice crystals began to emanate from it.

Lady Death's supernatural powers allowed her to see the danger that was coming her way. Those crystals would spread out in a matter of seconds and flash freeze all of them. Grabbing the shoulder of Mr. Majestic she wrapped the both of them up in ectoplasm film. Then they disappeared with a large sucking noise as if their organs had just been pushed through the top of a Coke bottle.

"They managed to escape my flash freeze. No matter. Joker will surely get all the information we need from the rest of these fools," Mr. Freeze said as he walked over to the frozen Superboy and rubbed his chin with mock affection.

Moscow 

"What kind of fuck ups gets the job you have?" Iron Man asked as he took off his helmet and set it to the side. Before Sinister really rose to power he had been a powerful industrialist by the name of Justin Hammer. He had still managed to keep a hold of his money and he used it to fight as Iron Man.

In fact that was the common trait that flowed through all the members of the JLA. They had all either been rich or were royals before the rise of Sinister. Now they fought the mad geneticist, but not so much to end his tyranny. They just wanted to have their statuses back.

"We're the fuck ups here to save your asses more than likely," Marcus Pezzini replied.

"Either that or kill ya. Never know which way the coin falls," She-Hulk added cracking her knuckles.

"Forgive Justin. He doesn't know how to treat guests," Emma Frost laughed passing around wine glasses to all the members of Weapon X.

"Does he know how to treat anything at all except for---"

"Hippolyta that is not lady like at all!" Wasp exclaimed cutting the Amazon queen off from making her sexual reference.

"We need to talk about what's important here people. Have you learned your mission yet Weapon X?" Black Panther asked. He was the reluctant leader of the JLA. His team had hardly been the ideal one for him to lead as most of them were too self-absorbed to act with some teamwork. He made the best of a rough situation though.

"We're suppose to free Darkstar from The Nucleus," Vargas replied.

"Can't help you there I'm afraid. Angels and demons alike fear to tread there. Every team that has tried has ended up captured, annihilated, or taking home far too many bodies. The JLA cannot risk that. Not when the last vestiges of humankind depend on us," Black Panther explained. In truth he just was plain afraid of the Nucleus. That place had horror stories coming out of it every day. The chance of him being captured frightened him to the core. To be made into one of Sinister's guinea pigs was a fate worse than death.

"It's fine. We've handled worse situations," Vargas replied as he gave Black Panther a stern handshake and prepared to leave the spacious central command center of the JLA's base.

Before Weapon X could depart a large explosion was heard and the impact knocked the two groups to the floor. Emma Frost groaned slightly as she reported the situation via her telepathy, "Hulk and Wolverine along with the Big Bad Bunch are attacking the city!"

"Vargas if you help us here my team will assist you in attacking The Nucleus," Black Panther offered as he rose to his feet.

"You have yourself a deal my friend. Now lets get to work!" Vargas yelled as he jumped out of a window. She-Hulk, Cannonball, and Fantomex followed behind him.

"Are they always that impulsive?" Iron Man asked slipping on his helmet.

"You wouldn't believe the half of it," Marcus Pezzini replied as he slipped into a shadow portal with Darkness.

Prague 

"What do you mean the Liberation Front is dead?" Xavier asked shocked by the news he was hearing.

"Six feet under Chuck. The Brotherhood ripped through them all," Two-Face reported. He had been doing recon work stateside for years now and he reported to Xavier.

"Damn it. We had such high hopes for them. Especially Terra. They could have proven pivotal in opening a gateway into America for us to launch attacks from."

Two-Face lit a cigarette and sighed, "Yep Chuck, but things don't always go as planned."

FLOOPP!

The sound caught the attention of the two men and they looked to their right to see a pale woman carrying a large man over her shoulders. Xavier immediately scanned their minds and found out all he needed to know.

"Lady Death you should come with me."


	6. Chapter 6

A Sinister Land…Pt. 3 

"You've gone stark mad!" Nekra yelled at the floating Mistress Strange as archaic power raged around her body in maddening directions.

"If this is madness give me more of it!" Mistress Strange cried out as the power she had absorbed from the killers of her master flooded her senses.

It had only been three days since Ororo had begun her quest and hunted down all those responsible for the death of her mentor, Doctor Strange, on the Astral Plane. Munroe ultimately knew the dark warlock, Xavier, was behind the killing. At the time her power levels would have made vengeance against him futile. So to appease her black emotions she hunted down those he had enlisted to slay her trainer from childhood.

First she found Jennifer Kale in Cypress Hills Cemetery and turned her organs into pure mush while absorbing her magical abilities. Then Clea and Mordo sought refuge with the X-Men. The fools actually had the audacity to try and protect them! Their efforts were foolish and ultimately she destroyed them as well. Agatha Harkness tried to fight back against Mistress Strange, but the old woman barely stood a chance. Taking her powers proved to be the most helpful in taking down the Himalayan wizard, Calizuma. Xavier's five henchmen provided Mistress Strange with the power she needed to officially be the Sorcerer Supreme.

"She can't be reasoned with! Don't even try," Multiple Man, leader of the Defenders, snapped. Mistress Strange was never one of his favorite people, but killing Baron Mordo had turned that dislike into hate. Jamie refused to believe his adopted father had anything to do with the death of Doctor Strange. The two of them had been the closest of friends. Ororo was simply using a tragedy to try and grab herself power.

"You are blind! I will make you SEE!" Mistress Strange screamed as Madrox was lifted up into the air and flipped upside down. An unearthly cry came forth from Jamie's mouth as hundreds of tiny men flew forth from his forehead. Each of the men were stripped of their flesh and flung into the portal forming in Ororo's abdomen.

"Stop Ororo! Stop!" Nekra begged as she could only imagine what tortures the Sorcerer Supreme was inflicting on her brother-in-law.

"Wake up Strange! Wake up," Bluestreak prodded as Ororo suddenly shot up from bed.

Sweat dripping down her face Mistress Strange asked, "What time is it?"

"Pretty damn early. Something has happened in Moscow though. Something real bad from the way Clarice was looking. Are you okay?"

Ororo nodded, "I'm fine. Just a bad nightmare."

Bluestreak looked tenderly at the obviously shaken woman, "Nothing you want to talk about?"

Sighing the powerful magic user wiped the sweat off her face, "There is a reason I've always chastised you so child. In you I see the hero I always hoped to be, but now never can."

Bluestreak laughed, "Trust me. If anybody is getting back to their home I'm sure it's you."

"That's not it child. That's not it at all. Once I did something awful and I let myself lose all control. My master was slain and I let my grief turn me down a dark path. I hunted down and killed his killers, but I also stole their power. That only served to corrupt me further. So much further," Mistress Strange said hanging her head low letting her white hair fall over her face.

"Is that what you were dreaming about?" Bluestreak asked.

"I became over indulged in my power and began to endanger the world. The Defenders came after me to take me down. They failed miserably. Madrox I stripped of his very being. Nekra drowned in her own blood. Superia and Darkstar I crucified. The others…"

Bluestreak wasn't quite sure what to say. She didn't know why Mistress Strange had suddenly decided to open up to her of all people. Maybe she was just tired as hell, but either way the young woman now understood why Strange always carried such an arrogant air. It kept her from having to actually feel.

"That was the past. You've proven yourself a hero a dozen times over."

"Leave," Mistress Strange mumbled.

"Huh?" Bluestreak asked a little bit thrown off by the sudden change of attitudes.

"I said LEAVE!" Mistress Strange yelled as she lifted up a hand and flung Bluestreak out of the door.

Landing flat on her behind the daughter of Quicksilver groaned, "Feel free to send me home anytime now Timebroker. Anytime now."

Moscow (Hours Earlier) 

Wolverine rushed forward and leaped off a fire hydrant into the air towards Archangel. He hated the little snot nose punk since the day the kid had tried to hit Firefly over the head with a mace. The attempted attack had been a cheap one and if not for Firefly being such a sharp flier it might have worked. Logan wanted to make sure he gutted the kid while looking him in the eye. Marauders had a reputation to keep after all.

Warren dodged Logan's claws and flew around him to grab the short man by the ankle. Spinning Logan in a circle he flung the Marauder towards the concrete road of Moscow. Hitting the ground like a sack of potatoes, Wolverine thanked Sinister for lacing his skeletal system with the indestructible metal, adamantium. Rising to his feet Logan growled wildly and leaped up towards Angel again.

Worthington side stepped Logan's right hand, but spinning his body around the left hand cut right across Angel's abdomen spilling entrails throughout the sky. Before Logan could even hit the ground he was under assault from dozens of bio-blasts from another member of the JLA.

Wasp watched as Wolverine ripped into Angel like a lion into its prey. Janet had every intention of putting Wolverine down for good. No matter whether he was a Marauder or not. All she had to do was keep up her constant barrage and she would weaken Logan down in no time at all. Making the mistake of underestimating the feral man would not be one she would make. Too many people had fallen like that. Wisdom, Drew, and Bridge just to name a few.

Working back the pain Wolverine leaped through the hail of bio-blasts and grabbed Van Dyne by the neck. He could smell the warm urine trickle down her black slacks, "Babe. That's just not cute!"

SNIKT!

Emma Frost was not liked among the forces of Sinister. Back when Sinister first began his conquests he had sent one of his squads, the Exterminators, to bring her into his fold. Chakra the Healer. Leland the Heavy. Lady Shiva the Deadly. Carrion the Wicked. Box the Strong. They had all been well known for their methods of persuasion. Upon trying to snatch her up Emma lashed out with her powers and killed them all. She wasn't going to be so lucky against this particular Marauder.

The Hulk was a beast among beast. No human army had been able to stand up to him so far and only a large collection of super beings was able to do the deed. Frost hated the fact she had to try and put him down before he did any major damage. The would be aristocrat was pouring out all of her telepathic energy into ripping apart the mind of the behemoth. It was no use. Too many personalities floated around in that monster's head. There was nowhere to start attacking.

"Hulk not like snoopers!" the green skinned brute yelled as he wrapped his hand around Emma's head and crushed it like a can.

Black Panther had been paying witness to this and landed on Hulk's back filled with rage. He quickly thrust two vibranium darts into Hulk's neck that was filled with enough sedatives to take down a herd of elephant. Hulk began to stagger but he ripped Emma's arms from her sockets and quickly swung around flinging Black Panther into the air. The Marauder used Emma's arms as boomerangs that both collided with Panther's head snapping his neck instantly. The leader of the JLA thumped to the ground dead.

"Bastard!" Hippolyta screamed as she flew through the air and slammed her fist into Hulk's chin.

"What she said," She-Hulk added as she ran forward and hit the weakened Hulk in his gut.

"HULK SMASH!" the reinvigorated Marauder screamed as he batted both women away like toys.

"What the hell ever made me want to wear heels with my uniform?" Hippolyta groaned.

"At least you're not like the Shadowcat of my world. That skank has the nerve to wear a thong in a fight. Intangible or not that's just tacky," She-Hulk replied. Both women managed to stifle a laugh before they charged into battle against the Hulk again.

Ka-Zar was once Kevin Plunder. His father had been wealthy and worked hard trying to find an ancient place he believed held dinosaurs. He spent his entire life trying to find the place, but it wasn't until Sinister showed him the way that the gate of the Savage Land was opened. The price for this discovery was the offering of a son. Kevin became a personal experiment of Sinister. His body, reflexes, and mind were enhanced and honed so that he became a deadly warrior. Eventually he was made a member of Red Skull's then unnamed team. As time went on the warriors garnered a reputation for themselves. Especially among children who called them The Big Bad Bunch in whispered stories. So The Big Bad Bunch became the official name of the team. It had been Nitro who suggested it before he was put down by Maul of the Avengers.

Now Ka-Zar stood side by side with Catwoman against a member of Weapon X. Vargas knew he would enjoy this fight if for no other reason he would be able to kill Plunder. On his world that man had soiled Vargas' reputation to no end.

"Two to one. I am quite liking those odds," Ka-Zar smiled as he pulled back his bow and unleashed arrow after arrow at Vargas. The black clad warrior cut and beat back the arrows with childlike ease. The only word to describe Vargas' actions was effortless.

"That doesn't look like its working that much," Selina Kyle laughed as she wrapped her whip around Vargas' wrist and pulled him to the ground finally allowing one of Ka-Zar's arrows to strike him in the shoulder.

If Vargas were in pain you wouldn't have been able to tell. He quickly turned Catwoman's weapon against her and with his own strength flung her into Ka-Zar. Their bodies smashed into each other and that's when Vargas made his move. Throwing his broad sword through the air the weapon cut through both members of the Big Bad Bunch killing them instantly.

Fantomex leaped out of the way of Elektra's Sais and Red Skull's bullets. The mutant assassin returned the gunfire and could only hope one of his bullets would be able to pierce the two's hides. He had already tried punching them out and it was like hitting a diamond. Obviously, Sinister had done some enhancing on these two on this world. Usually feeling like he could win any situation the Mexican man for once felt hopeless. The only other time he came close to feeling that way was on one Weapon X mission where they were fighting against hundred of Colossus clones. At least those guys had been mindless.

"You can feel free to die anytime now," Elektra said as she created two more Sais in her hands out of thin air.

"I tend to be the one doing the killing," Fantomex replied as he front flipped forward and kicked spiked boots in the middle of Red Skull's chest. Having implanted his feet in the Nazi's chest the white clad warrior flipped backward and sent the Skull careening into the air.

"Wrong move clown!" Elektra exclaimed as she charged at Fantomex and tried to stab him in the torso with her trademark weapons.

"When I look at my suit I tend to think badass before I think clown," Fantomex replied as he dodged her attack and hit her with a flat palm in the solar plexus.

The "clown" would never admit, but he was getting tired as hell. He had been going at it with these two for some time. He had been holding out hoping that help would come his way, but the way it was currently looking he was without aid. That gave him one of two options. Run like a coward or die like a fool. Fantomex smiled at the options. His Mom never thought he was the smartest kid of the bunch.

The two scantily clad ladies enjoyed the prospect of having to take on three men. Of course they wished it would be in a different manner, but that wasn't for them to decide.

Cannonball zoomed through the sky towards Fantasma extending his blast field more and more as he made his way to the ground. The purple haired Russian smiled as she held up her hands and went to work. Samuel was suddenly stripped for all his senses as he made his charge toward the woman. His eyes, ears, taste, and touch was all made nonexistent as he went into freefall.

Pleasure was written all over Fantasma's face as she watched Cannonball go into freefall like an out of control rocket. She didn't know who this man was and why his powers were so similar to the fallen Guthrie siblings, but she was enjoying every minute of his suffering. Like so many others she could imagine what he was going through. The disorientation, the loss of vision, and all the other uncommon sensations that were part of Fantasma's specialty. So many had fallen to the Big Bad Bunch simply because of Fantasma and her sense draining capabilities.

She was so busy in enjoying the pain she was causing others that she didn't see Darkness sneak up behind her and wrap his metallic hands around her face. With a voice that could give life to the music of Beethoven, Darkness said, "You have false magic woman. I feel it all around. Let me show you true mysticism."

Fantasma felt a cold, wet feeling rip through her innards and her eyes saw only a bright white light. Slowly black holes appeared in this white landscape and from these holes crawled forth beautiful women with the lower bodies of worms. It was a terrible sight and when these creatures their faces distorted worse than any Picasso painting. The more she watched these women scream the more of herself she felt was lost.

And this continued until the Russian woman had nothing left of her soul. Gently he descended her body to the ground and took her essence into his ancient weapon. He could feel her traveling through his body and it enriched his armor. Looking up in the sky he still saw that Cannonball was still in freefall and making his way towards a battling Marcus Pezzini and Circe.

The power of the Witchblade had extended a protective armor around Marcus and was moving forth to try and impale Circe. The witch was blasting back the crusty brown substance as much as she could, but she was being back into a corner. Moscow was a tightly built city and she didn't have much room to run before Marcus finished her off.

"You have no place to run. Surrender," Marcus commanded.

"Honestly, do you expect me to give up when I'm being attacked by runny mold? Please," Circe laughed as she made acid waves erupt from her body and burn back the material that the Witchblade had erected against her.

Much like her companion she had been paying no attention to her surrounding and never saw the kamikaze body of Cannonball coming her way. He struck her with such force that the small meat shop she had been standing in front of collapsed.

"Guess I didn't have to do much," Marcus smiled as the Witchblade returned to its original state.

Hulk wrapped his hands around the heads of Hippolyta and She-Hulk. The Marauder's palms were so large the two women were completely engulfed. Slamming his hands together the two women were rattled severely and upon releasing them his victims fell to the ground unconscious. Just as he was about to put in the finishing blows he felt two pinpricks on his back.

Turning around he saw the iron knight swooping down to attack him, but it didn't concern him in the slightest. Iron Man was worthless in the Marauder's mind and he wouldn't hesitate to finish him off permanently. In fact, he had been looking forward to it.

Iron Man unleashed two more bright orange blasts into the chest of the on looking Hulk. It was a pitiful attempt for the most part and Justin Hammer knew it. That wasn't going to stop him though. He was too determined to keep Moscow from being a burning fire pit.

Using the AI that was connected to his brain he changed the density of his armor and slammed into the green mammoth head on. It didn't affect the Hulk in the slightest and he wrapped his hand around Iron Man's head. With a tight squeeze he popped Iron Man's head. Unclenching his hand, blood and metal fell to the ground below.

Vargas could only watch in horror as his allies were quickly dwindling in number and strength. This battle was going completely wrong and Vargas had severely underestimated the power of his allies.

"You should have run when you had the chance!" Wolverine exclaimed as he landed behind Vargas and stuck his claws through the back of Weapon X's leader's head.

"Bastard!" Fantomex screamed as leaped through the air and wrapped his legs around Wolverine's neck. With incredible grace he lifted the Marauder into the air and flung him into a burnt out taxicab. Fantomex had never been in a battle this intense. On his world there had been an underground war between various government agencies. Fantomex had been a crucial part of that, but his hardest fight had been against Bullseye and Bullet Biker. Nothing even came close to the death he was seeing here.

Before he could speak anymore a hand was wrapped around his mouth. It was the hand of Electro and as the sparks began to rip through his opponent's body Max whispered, "I'm probably going to get a promotion for killing you."

"It should not have taken the aid of Mr. Freeze to take down your opponents. I'm very disappointed my son," Sinister chastised as he sat on his throne lethargically. Before him was Factor X. They were his team of brute power. When faced with a threat they were simply meant to overwhelm it. Instead they had needed the help of one of his elite to end a recent battle.

"I'm sorry Father. We had allowed ourselves to be caught unaware. Our arrogance proved our undoing," Superman apologized as he stepped forward and bowed before his father.

"You are all worthy warriors. I understand this. Just remember that growing too confident can allow an unexpected opponent to destroy you. I have seen it happen too many times. Remember what happened to Birdy in Tunisia?" Sinister asked bringing back the memories of one of his empire's greatest defeats.

Birdy had been a mutant in who he saw great promise, but she was far too arrogant and proud. Once Sinister enhanced her, those traits only grew in strength. He gave her an outpost in Tunisia to hopefully calm her and teach her the ways of war, but she only grew more arrogant. A force led by two human generals, Cameron Dalin and John Stewart utterly ruined Birdy's forces and captured her. She was paraded around as some kind of trophy for weeks before finally being killed. It had been an embarrassment for all of his empire and a strong lesson in humility.

"My Father once again we are greatly sorry for any offense that we have committed against you. I am too low to even beg for your forgiveness," Superman said pathetically as possible.

"Oh my child do not fret! A Father's anger quickly subsides. All is forgiven. I know you to be strong so go forth Factor X," Sinister replied as he rose from his throne and gave his "son" a hug.

Such a display of love for was uncommon for any of the troops to see from the High Lord. Most often the emotions he displayed ranged from annoyance to downright murderous rage. To see love from Sinister softened everyone in the room giving Prime enough courage to ask a question, "My lord where are the ones that Mr. Freeze captured?"

Sinister's grin turned devilish, "They're in the care of Joker. He will see to it that information is delivered to me. Whether it be through his knives, acids, or laughing gases I will get the information I seek. Now go all of you! I have much to ponder."

Knockout stifled an agonized scream as Joker eagerly began to push his hand through the slit in her abdomen.

Laughing manically the Marauder kissed Knockout on the cheek like a father would a daughter as he sent her off to school, "Don't try and squirm too much darling! I wouldn't want to break anything."

Insane laughter roared throughout the circular chamber.


	7. Chapter 7

A Sinister Land…Pt. 4 

The X-Wing flew over the Mediterranean zooming its way towards the Tunisian base of the X-Men Gold team. Xavier's lot had a great deal to tell Storm and the others. Only a few hours ago he had come across two people who claimed to be refugees from other dimensions. One of them looked exactly like Mr. Majestic of Factor X. If not for this telepathy Two-Face might have slain the man on the spot.

"I know that you two speak the truth, but I'm still shocked about it. To think that there are other worlds out there where the oppression of Sinister doesn't reign…it's baffling," Xavier sighed as he guided the plane to its destination. Maybe there was some way he could send all the innocents of this world to another one where they would be safe until the reign of Sinister was over with. Why would these two allow themselves to be locked into servitude where they had to come to worlds such as his?

"Does Sinister even exist on the worlds you come from?" the short redhead, Jean Grey, asked. She was just as curious as her mentor, Xavier. He had found her in the depths of a destroyed Philadelphia. He had to do battle with Mr. Freeze for her life and it had cost Xavier his arm. Grey was eternally grateful to the man and she could clearly see that the cogs of his brains were going at full steam. She knew Xavier like the back of his hand and when he started to think too hard he lost focus on everything else. The only thing that overrode his curiosity was his need to eavesdrop.

"Sinister doesn't exist on my world. No one I have met here thus far has a counterpart on the world I'm from except for the alternate of myself," Mr. Majestic said.

"I'm not particularly fond of him," Senyaka, the sword-wielding member of the team, groaned underneath his cloaked face.

"Nor am I," Mr. Majestic said as he looked out of the X-Wing's window. Something gave him butterflies in his stomach. As if he was heading towards something familiar.

"So your Xavier can walk huh?" Bluestreak asked as she waited outside of the X-Men's base with Blink, Storm, Cortez and Mistress Strange.

"Yes of course. Why do you ask?" Storm replied.

"Well, for most of us Xavier is a cripple on our worlds," Bluestreak explained.

"Speak for yourself. He was a dark sorcerer of great power in mines," Mistress Strange commented with a blank stare that spoke of deep thoughts.

Bluestreak wished she could break through to what was at the core of the woman. Something was there that terrified the hell out of Mistress Strange and she was trying to carry a regal air to disguise it. She never got to know the Storm of her world because she had died of the Sinister Outbreak. Her father had definitely seemed to be impressed by the woman from his stories though.

"The aircraft is coming. I suggest we make their landing a bit safer," Blink said giving a wink to Mistress Strange.

Closing her eyes the Sorceress Supreme began to chant incoherently and concrete rose up from the ground to give the plane sufficient space to land. From what Storm had told them landing aircraft was a supremely hard task in these parts simply because Sinister had wrecked most forms of transportation to ensure that his terrasect portals would be the supreme standard of the land.

The landing of the aircraft was a smooth one and as the passengers made their way towards the Exiles and X-Men a certain item caught the attention of Clarice Ferguson.

"How the hell did you get a Tallus?" Blink asked shocked at the sight of the item attached to the caped man's wrist. Could it be possible that Timebroker had other teams out there doing what she had been doing for years? The idea was a staggering one for the pink skinned teleporter.

"I'm guessing you're not part of Weapon X then," Mr. Majestic replied as he examined the group of people before him. It was actually quite easy to tell the natives from the out of towners. The natives all had an eternally tired look across thief faces. As if their whole lives were a funeral.

"Weapon Who?" Bluestreak asked her face contorting into an expression of confusion. Wild Thing had told her about a Weapon X project once, but she seriously doubted that this guy was referring to the same thing.

"Another team of Timebroker. Thus far you're the third team of his that we've encountered," Mr. Majestic explained seeing that the two young women found the idea of what he was suggesting implausible. A smile of amusement crossed his face.

Lady Death nudged Mr. Majestic in the ribs seeing that he was enjoying his conversation with the two women a bi too much. Her hormonal leader hadn't been with a woman since the Titans were on the world ruled by the demon goddess Maitresse. Majestic had seduced and used the Black Canary of that world to achieve the Tallus' goal. Ever since then her leader had been feening to get his hands on another young morsel. Unfortunately for him, Lady Death was going to keep him in check.

"I think we should talk about this all more in-depth inside," Xavier suggested having sensed Lady Death's annoyance.

"Yes I agree with Xavier. We should retreat to more accommodating settings," Mistress Strange suggested having to fight back the instinct to lash out at the bald man. The presence of the woman with the other Tallus holder disrupted her as well. The woman's power was entirely mystical in nature and something about it felt primal. If she could get a chance she would pull this woman to the side and speak with her about her power.

"If you're curious about something why don't you just ask?" Storm said briefly before making her way ahead of Mistress Strange and addressing Xavier. Seeing the two of them speak was eerie for the Sorceress Supreme. Xavier had been her greatest foe and then some on her world. Here the two acted as if they were the best of friends.

Mesmero opened the entrance to the base and passed a stern look over everyone outside, "Come in quickly! Something terrible has occurred in Moscow! The JLA has been totally decimated from early reports."

Xavier and Storm exchanged worried glances. The JLA had been one of the strongest defenses against the advance of Sinister. Only a short time ago Deathstroke had defeated the Avengers. It seemed as if they resistance to Sinister was falling apart.

"We were there in Moscow. We were there," Cannonball said as he carried She-Hulk and Hippolyta on his shoulders. Behind him was Marcus Pezzini and Darkness. The five battered and bruised warriors looked like they had just fought a Roman Legion. The exhaustion was evident in all of them, especially the two that were barely holding on to consciousness.

**6 Hours Later….**

"So we all got separate missions? Ahh this just keeps getting better and better," Blink laughed weakly.

"Well, I think we can all help each other out in the others mission. That way we can get off this shithole world and move on to the next one. No offense Xavier," Lady Death said.

"None taken my friend, but killing Sinister is going to be quite the task. Not to mention rescuing someone from the Nucleus and destroying it."

"If we help them Xavier maybe they can do it," Jean Grey commented.

"I agree with Jean on this. We can help," Magma added.

"I think the spirits demand we help," Xorn said.

"Fine! We'll help them. That's settled. Where first tho?" Xavier asked.

"Lets hit the Nucleus, free this Darkstar, and then take the fight to Sinister," Mr. Majestic said.

"Yea I agree. Darkstar would be of great help in a fight. At least if she's anything like the Darkstar of my world," Cannonball proclaimed.

"Well then why are we sitting around here for? Lets get to work!" Blink exclaimed.


	8. Chapter 8

Backlash regretted ever saving these interdimensional travelers. All they did was die. The one called Superboy and his friend, Invisible Skrull, were all that stood to help him against the Brotherhood. Backlash was just glad that Wolverine wasn't involved in the fray. Slayton had been pretending to be a student of Wolverine for years while in truth he was an undercover agent for Harvey Dent. Backlash could only imagine the rage the Marauder would have at being tricked. Joker's anger at getting sucker punched probably would be enough to earn Slayton years of torture.

"Poor little Backlash. All alone and with nobody to help him," Killer Frost laughed as she licked her deep blue lips in anticipation of the kill.

"I'm far from poor. I did pay attention to Wolverine ya know!" Slayton replied as he leaped into the air and unleashed his extraordinarily long psi-whips. One whip wrapped around the neck of Ray and extended to entrap the ankle of Midnighter. The second whip took the torso of Trapster. Unleashing the power of his weapons caused the minds of all those entrapped in it to temporarily turn to goop.

Using the moment of confusion Invisible Skrull entrapped the head of Resurrection Man in a bubble and began to contract the bubble with great force. Resurrection man whipped around in great agony and let loose flares of flame in the desperate hope to end his pain. He knew that he could never die, but nonetheless that never eased the pain of someone trying to do it. Cracks began to appear along his skull and blood gushed forth, but was simply contained by the field.

Meanwhile Superboy flew forward and slammed into Raven hoping to kill her quickly and make their escape. Moving with super speed he maneuvered himself behind the sorceress and snapped her neck. The sound was loud enough to catch the attention of Killer Frost who let out an anguished cry and sent ice spikes Superboy's way. Superboy knocked away the ice with ease and moved to finish off Killer Frost when a yellow blast ripped the Kryptonian clone in half.

Backlash looked up with horror at the newest participant in the fight. Lord Sinister had seen it fit to check in on the matter at hand.

"You treacherous little worm! For you to turn your back on my Marauders after they took you in. You will die for such insolence you fool!" Sinister screamed as he sent a pillar of energy at Slayton.

There was nothing Backlash could do, but to pray that someone made Sinister one day pay for all of his sins.

Deathcharge, Bullseye, and Gladiator were the three screw-ups who had been assigned the most boring job in all of Sinister's great empire. They were serving, as security for the Nucleus, which was so heavily fortified no one, would even be bold to make an attempt on it. So basically the three warriors sat around doing nothing, but trading war stories back and forth.

"I remember the invasion of Atlantis like it was yesterday. Black Manta had led the charge and there wasn't a damn thing Namor could do to stop it! Ahh good times," Deathcharge smiled as he chugged back a drink. The Atlantean had once served as a scientist for his kingdom and gained energy wielding abilities after conducting experiments on himself. Desiring a higher position of power Deathcharge sold out his people to Sinister.

"Yea I got held back from going on the Atlantis attack. I was in Hungary trying to push through Europe," Bullseye sighed. It was because of what happened in Hungary that he was in the position he held now. He had been assigned by Sinister to kill the cybernetic man known as Bastion. He nearly had his kill if it wasn't for the X-Men interfering and stopping him. Because of that Bastion was able to rally his Prime Sentinels and push back Sinister's troops. Bullseye was lucky that he even still had his life.

"Gladiator was fighting in Australia. Ra's Al Ghul beat Gladiator's forces," the metal covered brute groaned. It was said that ever since the devastating loss in Australia that Gladiator had lost his mind and was deemed too unstable to do any real work in the empire of Lord Sinister. So he had been reduced to being security at a place that had never had any real need for it.

Before Bullseye could comment on how much he hated Ghul a series of sirens went off all around him. It was the proximity alert. Someone was actually trying to get into the Nucleus!

Turning his face quickly to the computer Deathcharge gasped, "We got 20 plus enemies! Lets get prepped people!"

Gladiator rubbed the razor blades on his wrists together, "Finally Gladiator will have the chance to spill blood!"

Blink kicked one of the mechanical guards in the head as magma flew by her and struck two more of the artificial sentries. Clarice landed on the ground gracefully after striking her blow and allowed for Hardcase to leap over her and slam into another droid.

"Lets make short work of these guys!" Blink ordered as created portal after portal within the attacking robots. The energy from her portals was enough to rip the robots apart. All the while Magma and Storm were letting loose their elemental rage upon the attacking androids. The waves of robots just didn't seem to stop coming.

"Finally we got some flesh and blood to hit on!" Bluestreak exclaimed as she peered upwards and caught sight of the hovercraft carrying Deathcharge and the others.

"They are pathetic worms!" Reed von Doom yelled as a blue beam flew forth from his hand and destroyed the vehicle. As the debris fell to the ground still burning the son of Doctor Doom turned to Bluestreak with menacing eyes, "And I have no time for worms!"

"I like your style Doom. No mess. No fuss," Mr. Majestic commented.

"Move it people before Sinister notices something is up and sends in his lil storm troopers," Blink ordered.

"She's right. I'm not picking up any minds except those of prisoners so we're good to go for now. But Sinister's eyes see everything. He will know something is wrong at the Nucleus and send his enforcers after us," Xavier warned.

"The Nucleus is under attack sir. We've got reports coming in left and right from nearby bases and the security systems of the facility itself. Whoever decided to attack it decided to attack it hard," Killer Frost reported to Sinister, who's back was turned to her.

"Who are the attackers?" Sinister asked having his suspicions that it was either Bastion or Ra's Al Ghul as he considered them the only two capable of launching a successful attack against his massive prisoner lab.

"The two X-Men teams are confirmed, but they're also accompanied by a group of strangers that are a bit baffling sir. Blink, Cannonball, and She-Hulk all died in the invasion of Atlantis yet they're with the X-Men. A copy of Storm and Mr. Majestic were also spotted amongst the attackers," Killer Frost replied fearful of how Lord Sinister would react to what she was telling him.

"Perhaps the humans have finally learned that genetics is a weapon of awesome power. Go with your Brotherhood and Factor X. Eliminate the attackers and get their DNA samples. I will teach the humans who the master of genetics is," Sinister exclaimed.

Bowing Killer Frost turned away from Lord Sinister and walked out of the room. She had to hide her excitement at being able to take on the X-men again. She owed Meggan for killing Whirlwind and anyone who would pretend to act like her best friend, Blink, deserved to get killed in the worst way possible.

"Okay guys we're going to split up here. Bluestreak and Reed will come with me. Stepstone will go with the X-Men Gold team. Lorna, Xorn, and Cannonball will go together as well. Everyone else get to the center of this base and shut all the damn security off," Blink ordered as she could hear the coming of more robotic drones.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Hardcase said. He had to admit that this Nucleus gave him the creeps. It reminded him far too much of Rune's Blood Castle back on his world. The governments of the world freely gave their criminals to Rune for him to feast upon. Rune grew in power until he made a bid to control everything. Too many Ultras had died in the battle against him and what was found inside the Blood Castle could make anyone spew their insides.

"What happens if we can't get to the center of this place?" Cortez asked curious as to what Blink had for a back-up plan.

"Then that means we find Darkstar and haul ass with as few causalities as possible," Blink replied completely certain in her leadership for once. Ever since the vampire world where she lost Morph and Sunfire she had been unsure of herself. Something about this world had restored confidence to her.

"If we keep talking we'll have security all over our asses in a sec here people. Lets just do the damn thing and get it over with!" Stepstone yelled growing irritated with the doubts of the others. She just wanted to get this mission over with and move on to the next world.

"I gotta agree with Illyana on this one. The rest of you guys can't keep up with me and I don't want to leave any stragglers in my dust," Bluestreak teased.

Blink rolled her eyes, "Move out people!"

This was the third room that Reed had examined and already he was growing tired of seeing the pathetic prisoners begging for someone to free them. Blink had been weak to oblige the fools, but none of them had been of any combat use thus far. Doom could only hope that this room would bear more fruitful prizes.

"Please! Free us!" Silver Sable yelled as she pulled fanatically at the chains keeping her pinned to the wall.

"Finally! Fighters," Reed said as he blasted Silver Sable, Black Widow, and Dr. Light free of their chains.

Eight deformed arms protruded out of Black Widow's back and her eyes no longer resembled those of a human. She had been subjected to the horrible experiments of the Nucleus and would never again be the same person she once was. Looking up with pleading eyes she said, "Kill me please. I don't want to live like this."

Seeing Widow reminded Blink of the horrors that Sinister and Dark Beast had reeked upon the people of her world. Nothing would ever wipe those memories from her mind and seeing this pathetic woman made all those memories flood forward. Taking out one of her javelins Blink looked down upon Black Widow with mercy and ended her life.

"There is no time to mourn! We must move!" Reed von Doom commanded as he lifted Silver Sable and Dr. Light to their feet.

Stepstone cut down the last of the machines guarding Darkstar. With her superior strength Meggan ripped loose the chains of Darkstar and the exhausted woman fell into Meggan's arms.

"Here take her Senyaka," Meggan said as she passed the Russian off onto the shoulder of Senyaka. He kept Darkstar stable with one arm and held his sword with the other.

"Okay now let's hope everyone else is doing good," Cortez commented as he prepared to amp up everyone's powers. With Darkstar in tow they now had to barrel their way out of the building.

Almost on cue the roof of the Nucleus began to shake violently. Pink energy could be seen poking through holes and crevices in the roof. Stepstone looked to the seemingly sleeping Darkstar, "She's ripping the roof wide open!"

Within a matter of moments the roof was ripped clear off the building and the sight everyone saw descending from the sky was enough to make their skin crawl.

"It's the Brotherhood and Factor X," Meggan gulped as she saw the wicked smile plastered across Killer Frost's face.


	9. Chapter 9

A Sinister Land Pt. 6 

Lorna hated Superman more than any other member of Factor X. Before she had joined the ranksof the X-men she had worked with a group that called themselves the Crusaders. The team had been Atom Smasher, Damage, The Sword, Black Panther, Andromeda, and herself. Superman personally led the attack against her old team and it had been his hands that killed Damage and Andromeda. Xavier and Ra's Al Ghul were the only reason that her and Black Panther had survived. After that they both went their separate ways, but now T'Challa was dead. Probably buried beneath the rubble of Moscow with the rest of the JLA.

The "son" of Sinister smirked. He could see the unfathomable amount of rage waiting o burst forth from Polaris. If she could she would rip him apart like Darkstar had torn open the roof. Both parties knew that her task would never come close to being that simple. Not even in a thousand years.

"Surrender yourselves now and perhaps leniency will be thrown your way," Superman said calmly and slowly as he waited for the attack that was rue to come. He was right of course because he was immediately within tons of debris metal. His attacker had been Polaris and she was hoping to crush or at least keep Superman occupied.

Over the metal surrounding Superman a blue glow began to appear. It was a soft glow, but not at all unrecognizable to somebody trained to see it. Lorna looked down below her and saw that Xorn was adding on the gravitational pressure. Now it remained to be seen how well Superman could handle a magnetic and gravity attack.

"You think that your attack can stop me?" Superman asked groaning under the pressure of the dual attack.

"Maybe if they get a bit more help!" Cannonball yelled as she slammed Superman in the chest with the full energy of his blast field. He was keeping himself levitated and re-directing his energy to burst forth from his fists. Superman was putting in obvious effort to resist the three-way attack. The amber energy of Sam Guthrie had been unexpected and Sinister's "son" had to actually work to keep himself alive and well.

Fabian Cortez spied the battle going on with the leader of Factor X and knew that he could be the end of Superman. Reaching up with his fists he blasted Polaris and Xorn with his power enhancement blasts and energy reached forth from his eyes to hit Cannonball. His three allies grew in power tenfold and Superman screamed as the weight of the gravity began to snap bones and the metal was beginning to rip through his skin. Eventually, Cannonball's blast went straight through his chest and the "son" of Sinister fell to the ground dead.

Lady Death swung her scythe across Supreme's face and filled his mind with memories of the dead from the realm she had been ripped from. Supreme reeled back form the attack so swiftly he collided with a steel pillar and shook the foundation of the already unstable building. The agony that Lady Death was putting him through was unbearable.

He lived out the life of an abused woman in the 1850s, the life of a child riddled with cancer, the struggle of a failing author with his drug addiction, and so many more. Supreme was being forced to live out lifetimes in seconds and they all contained too much information for his mind to process in any kind of proper manner. It was like having to read a dictionary in one night then be expected to know every solitary word. When he recovered nothing would stop the servant of Sinister from finishing his attacker off. She wasn't a familiar face and if she was a newbie to this war then all the more reason to kill her now before she gained anymore skill enhancement opportunities. Such chances could mean trouble for Sinister.

"I'm not Tylenol, but let me know if this gets your mind off your headache," She-Hulk said as she pounced on a confused Supreme and punched him square in the jaw. If they had been in a smaller part of The Nucleus then Supreme would have made a titanic mess of things. Fortunately, all he managed to do was knock himself through a few support beams in what little remained of the roof.

Having control of himself Supreme shook off the punch, cracked his knuckles, and with gritted teeth said "Time for round two bitches!"

"Watch your language!" Hippolyta yelled as she wrapped her arms around Supreme's neck and flung him back with her into a metal pillar of the building. The two went crashing through the pillar and exposed Supreme's chest. Lady Death teleported above the exposed flesh and sent her weapon straight through him. The attacked decayed the soul of Supreme until he was a soulless shell.

"Not much of a round," Lady Death laughed.

Prime knew something was wrong here. The blink he knew was long dead and gone. Yet, here she was standing before him wearing some skimpy outfit. The Blink he knew would have never worn that outfit and she would have been making her opponent eat dirty by now. Not trying to stand there with some menacing look, but remaining inactive.

Clarice knew that Hardcase had wanted to handle tall and buff. It had something to do with his world having a counterpart of the baby-faced steroid junkie. Blink wasn't going to have that happen though because she knew that Hardcase was at his best when he was impersonal. Fighting the guy would have only made Hardcase emotional and thrown him off his game. He was far from the most powerful member of this band so he could not afford to step off his game. Blink wasn't going to have it.

"You're not the Blink that I knew. Not by a long shot," Prime scowled. He knew that the humans had something to do with what was going on. Maybe they were trying to thrown everyone off with copies of their dead friends? Whatever it was Prime was not about to allow the memory of Blink be tainted. Especially not by some trampish imitator.

"Considering the world that you live in I'll take that as a compliment," Clarice replied as she teleported behind Prime and delivered him a swift kick to the head. The blow caught Prime off-guard enough that he stumbled into the ground. Blink knew that the blow had only surprised. She knew that there was no way she could have done any damage.

Rising to his feet Prime turned to look at the battle ready Blink, " I could fly on you and just beat you like that, but I'm not about quick victories. I'm about entertaining ones. So I'm going to break you slowly you sluttish imitation."

"Oh you just had to go and call me a slut."

Blink flung out two of her javelins and each one struck Prime in the shoulder. The large boy in a man's body cried out as green blood oozed out. Clarice hadn't charged those two javelins and with good reason. It was easy for her to see that Prime wasn't the brightest of the pack and she would use that to her advantage. Pulling out the javelins Prime grunted, "Blink used ninja stars. They looked cooler."

"Maybe, but she probably didn't have half my aim," Blink replied as she sent two more javelins into Prime's feet.

"Arrghh! You little hoe!" Prime yelled as she flew at super-speed and grabbed the bag that held Blink's javelins.

"Stupid move," Blink proclaimed as a tremendous amount of pure spatial energy surged through Prime's body. She had charged her entire bag of javelins. Keeping Prime thinking the javelins were just regular old weapons was all part of her plan. The big boy had been naïve enough to try and deny her the weapons that were her trademark.

"Blink DUCK!" Stepstone yelled to her leader as the bodies of Killer Frost and Trapster zoomed over her head and crashed into the remnants of the pillar that Supreme had ripped apart.

"I'm guessing those are your victims," Blink commented seeing that the bodies of the two soldiers of Sinister were in pieces.

"And this one's mine," Mr. Majestic said as he dropped the head of his evil counterpart to the ground. It felt good ending the life of someone that was making such a mockery of his name.

Bluestreak ran circles around Ray. She was running up the walls, across the roof, around other battles, and it was all in an attempt to avoid the numerous blasts that he was sending her way. This guy moved fast though and she was barely able to dodge all of his attacks. Running past the headless body of Mr. Majestic almost made her want to puke, but she didn't have time as Ray's blast obliterated the body.

"Keep running girl. I'll catch you eventually," Ray exclaimed as he struggled to keep pace with the speedster.

"Catch this ass!" Bluestreak yelled as she plucked a piece of hair and flung it at Ray. The speed at which the hair was moving was enough to easily send it straight through Ray's shoulder and out his back.

"You bitch!" Ray exclaimed as he felt the sting and the blood began to flow.

The young speedster was too busy gloating to notice the piece of debris in her way. By the time she caught it in her vision it was too late and she went barreling through the air. Ray saw his opportunity and smiled. Unleashing a hot beam of light he cut the right arm of the flailing Bluestreak right off.

"AHHH!" Bluestreak screamed as the appendage was ripped from her and she collided with the ground.

"You piece of shit!" Blink yelled as she teleported behind Ray and grabbed his shoulders. He teleported and reappeared a bloody heap of flesh on top of Midnighter who was battling Storm and Havok.

Midnighter frantically tried to remove the blood and entrails off of him, but it was too late. Ororo and Alex had the opening they needed. Storm unleashed a lightning blast that coursed through the man's body and Alex finished him off by blowing a cantaloupe-sized hole where his genitals would have been.

Hardcase had killed Resurrection Man ten times now and each time was getting a little bit more difficult for him. This time around his opponent seemed to have telekinetic abilities and he was flinging everything he could at him. Hardcase was dodging most of the stuff easy enough, but he was indeed tiring from this fight that just wasn't coming to any kind of end. Finally one of the objects nailed Hardcase in the knee and sent him to the ground. He was bathing in agony, but he refused to cry out. He wouldn't give a piece of scum that kind of satisfaction.

Resurrection Man floated over to Hardcase and lifted the man off of the ground with his telekinetic abilities. Smiling with blood stained teeth Resurrection Man said, "You and your friends have killed far too many of my kind today. I shall see you suffer!"

With his abilities he ripped apart every one of Hardcase's organs and made sure he made it as painful as possible for his enemy. Resurrection Man enjoyed the shaking of Hardcase's body and hoped that every moment of pain would be forever embedded in his opponent's soul. Nothing could be more fitting.

"You monster!" Mistress Strange roared from above the fight as she felt Hardcase's life slip away. She was the Sorceress Supreme. Why couldn't she protect those she cared for? But did she really care for these Exiles? Could she just be feeling guilty about her own past and applying it to the present? Whatever it was she didn't care at the moment. She wanted revenge and she would have this night!

Floating down to the ground Mistress Strange quickly held Resurrection Man in place with a spell and she began to chant frantically. Gray began to spread from the soldier of Sinister's boots and up through his body. Strange was changing him into stone. There would be no escape from this. He would truly be immortal now and his service for Sinister was at an end. That was Resurrection Man's only regret. That he could not have served his master better and longer.

"It's over Strange. It's done," Marcus Pezzini said as she put a reassuring hand on the woman's shoulder.

"Nothing is ever done. All of creation is a never-ending story and we're only bit players in it. I don't know why his death angered me so, but it did. Such rage has not course through me in so long," Mistress Strange mumbled.

"Raven is battling Darkstar! We have to help her!" Darkness said alerting the two to the battle going on between the two women.

"I already got that covered," Silver Sable interrupted as she crouched to the ground, cocked her gun, and fired a shot straight through Raven's heart. The last of the Brotherhood let out an anguished cry as she disappeared in a mass of black fire. Her bones fell to the earth below and turned to dust.

"That was easy," Marcus Pezzini laughed.

"No it wasn't. Hardcase is dead and Bluestreak is injured. That was far from what I'd call easy," Blink grumbled as she realize that their numbers were shrinking and if Sinister was as powerful as everyone said they couldn't afford to lose anymore people.

"Bluestreak? Is she alright?" Stepstone asked.

"Not sure. I teleported her to a hospital in Berlin. Hopefully they can help her there. Right now we gotta get out of here and to our next target," Blink reminded.

Darkstar floated to the ground. She looked ragged and torn. With a stern face she said, "All of you leave. I will destroy this facility and meet up with you."

"Good, but don't take your time. No telling what we're up against next," Blink reminded harshly.

Sinister Tower 

"Most of these attackers are from another dimension. They've come here to ruin my empire. Already we have lost too many. I will not lose anymore of my precious soldiers. End this threat and end it quick Marauders."

"Yes Lord Sinister," Wolverine bowed.

"Your will be done Lord Sinister," Deathstroke said following Wolverine's lead.

"They'll be dead before daybreak my lord," Joker promised.

"No more of our people will fall Lord Sinister," Mr. Freeze reassured.

"No more," Hulk grunted as he simply bowed his head.

"Good. Now go!" Sinister ordered.


	10. Chapter 10

A Sinister Land Pt. 7 

Mistress Strange floated above the rest of her allies (even those that flew themselves) and kept her sight on the large black tower that covered the entire area of what use to be Toronto. Ororo could feel such darkness coming from that building. It came at her in waves and washed over her like a tree caught in a tsunami. If it weren't for her extensive training in dealing with such darkness she would have fallen out of the sky. The Sorceress Supreme had only seen that kind of darkness one place before…in herself.

Clarice looked up and saw that Mistress Strange was trapped deep in thought. All of them had been. Hardcase had been killed and Bluestreak gravely injured in the fight at The Nucleus. She had a great deal of respect for Hardcase and she looked to Bluestreak like a little sister. To see one dead and the other one wounded broke her heart. This world was far too much like the one she had hailed from. The stench of death hung around like the friend that had long worn out their welcome. What would Mr. Creed tell her to do right now? How would he guide her?

_If only you were here with me. Maybe I might be able to bear this responsibility._

"We've only got a few more miles and we'll be at the Tower. Once there Majestic is going to catch the attention of Sinister alongside Meggan. Then we'll make our move," Xavier explained.

"Works for me. Let's just hurry," Blink replied wanting to just teleport that Tower into the ocean to never be seen again.

Seeing an object in the distance coming straight for Blink the bald telepath pushed Clarice to the ground as an orange disk smacked full force into his forehead. The disk stuck to his head like glue and began to emit an awful wailing sound. Xavier cried out in agony, as did Jean Grey and Mesmero. Only a few seconds later all three fell to the ground dead and bleeding from their eyes. The attack was a shocking one that caught everyone off guard. Blink quickly equipped herself with two javelins as she heard heavy boots collide with the ground.

Standing in front of her was a man with a two-colored face. Half of it was a dark orange and the other half was black. The armor the man wore carried enough weapons within and on it to take down entire armies. The menacing smirk couldn't be seen under his faceplate, but it was there. Deathstroke hadn't faced anyone that was an appropriate opponent in years. This collection of superpowers had been enough to take down the Brotherhood, Factor X, and destroy The Nucleus. They were to be respected, but they had never seen the likes of the Marauders.

"I call that lil device a telepath disrupter. It emits a signal and all the mind readers go boom," Deathstroke exclaimed as he held out his palm and a red energy sword appeared for him to grasp. He was going to tear these mongrels apart piece by piece.

A large quaking went through the ground and everyone struggled to keep his or her footing. The event had signaled the arrival of the Hulk and on his left shoulder was sitting the feral Wolverine. On his right shoulder was the Joker who was clapping wildly being thoroughly amused by the ride that Hulk had just taken him on. Wolverine let loose his claws and gave a toothy grin, "Open season bub."

Sliding in on an ice bridge was the last of the Marauders, Mr. Freeze. Mr. Majestic and Lady Death recognized him as the man who had helped in capturing their team back in Korea. If there was any reason to fear this group of men he was it. Victor looked upon the collection of heroes coldly, "Lets kill them and be done with it."

The Marauders immediately went to work. Hulk leaped into the mass of heroes and snatched Lady Death's scythe from her with his index finger and thumb. He grabbed the lithe figure with his other hand and ran her through with her own weapon. Lady Death let out an agonized cry before she was lost to a land she was all too familiar with. She-Hulk and Hippolyta charged forth from behind hoping to conduct a sneak attack. The green behemoth heard them coming a mile away. He flicked the weapon through the air like a young child would whip a thin stick through the air. The weapon sliced She-Hulk in half and decapitated Hippolyta. Needless to say Hulk had garnered himself very easy victories.

Storm was barreling lightning on his armor, Magma was trying to melt his glass helmet, and Lorna was trying to rip his armor to pieces, but none of this was having any effect on Mr. Freeze. Long ago he had Deathstroke install a device that created a shield around his entire body. The shield absorbed any form of energy and simply converted it into power for Freeze's various weapons. With an emotionless stare Freeze simply lifted up one of his more elementary freeze rays and turned the three women into lifeless ice cubes.

Fabian Cortez was trying his best to land a decent shot on Wolverine. All he needed was one shot and he could obliterate the Marauder's powers. Logan was just too fast though and he was dodging every shot that Cortez threw his way. Everyone else was too busy trying to take down the other Marauders so he had taken it upon himself to handle Wolverine. After all the man had slain many of his friends during this awful war and it would only be right if he could destroy the man. All he needed was one shot.

"You're a bad shot bub," Wolverine said as he stabbed Cortez through the abdomen and kicked his body to the floor.

Logan looked around and saw that his Marauders were doing what Sinister had sent them here to do. He never doubted that they could get the job done. Not once. Sinister made them the best and they acted accordingly. Nothing was going to keep from gutting these punks and making them trophies on Sinister's wall.

"Weapon X!" Blink yelled as she leaped forward and kicked Wolverine in the face.

"Such pretty ladies, but nothing to say of fashion sense!" Joker cackled as he dodged the bullets of Silver Sable. With unnatural ease he slinked his way up to Silver Sable and snatched the gun out of her hands. An acidic substance lined his white gloves and burned the gun like it was paper under candlelight.

Meggan hit Joker with a punch to the temple and sent the frail body man flying into the air. Landing on the ground with a thud the Joker quickly dusted himself off and smiled, "Your mom should have cut back on whatever she was feeding you toots!"

Joker threw out two darts that struck the necks of Silver Sable and Meggan. He had flung the weapons out with such speed and ease that the women never saw it coming until it was too late. They both began to laugh uncontrollably and fell to the ground convulsing. Joker walked across the battlefield, stood over them and laughed, "That's the spirit ladies. Don't worry. Be happy! Happy happy happy!"

Hearing a loud crash Joker's attention was turned to the body of Mr. Majestic slamming into Hulk. The Marauder began to laugh even harder, "Ol Green beans always gets the hard knocks."

Hulk wasn't able to hear the comment as he was sent flying backwards into a burnt out car. The body of the behemoth ripped through the aged object like it was wrapping paper. Hulk finally rolled to a stop from Majestic's blow. Quickly rising to his feet the anger was evident all over his monstrous face. Someone had gotten the drop on him and quite frankly it pissed Hulk the hell off!

"Bring it you sorry piece of shit," Mr. Majestic bellowed. The Hulk had killed the last of his teammates. Lady Death had been his only familiar face on this entire wretched world and that green fool had made the mistake of ending her life. Now he was going to make the inhuman monster never wished he had laid eyes on Lady Death let alone kill her.

Hulk charged forward from the wreckage and came towards the floating Mr. Majestic like a locomotive. Anger motivated sweat dripped down his brow. He would break the fool who had attacked him in half. The last person to hit him that hard was Superman and it was during a training exercise that Sinister forced him to hold back in. Here his power would be unbridled and unleashed to its fullest.

Then he felt his entire body begin to move slower and with less speed. Something was actually holding him back. That's when Hulk finally took time enough to look at himself and see that he was glowing a faint blue. Looking behind him he saw the metal face of Xorn hard at work. Having lost his momentum and his advantage Hulk began to be pummeled by punch after punch from Majestic. Eventually the strength and number of the blows began to draw blood from the Hulk.

Growing tired of the assault on his person Hulk grabbed Majestic's wrist and squeezed. The former leader of the Titans team let out a scream and crumpled to the ground. Hulk was about to step on him when his body suddenly flew into the air like it was air. Xorn had changed his gravity so that he was like as a feather.

"This ends now Marauder," Xorn said as he floated up into the air and a black hole began to form in the middle of his chest. Hulk could feel the force beginning to tug at him and there was nothing he could do about it. The hole kept growing bigger until it was plenty able to suck in the body of the Marauder. Hulk could only let out one last unearthly yell as he was sucked into the void.

Xorn knew that he wasn't capable of closing the hole he had created without destroying himself, but that was the sacrifice he had made. Too many of his friends had already died and he would not see the Marauders kill anymore of them. Besides he would go down in history as being the guy who killed the Hulk. So with a somber smile he began the process of closing the black hole and destroying himself.

"I will deliver death to the three of you quickly," Mr. Freeze stated as he ducked the flying body of Cannonball. His three opponents had proven themselves in combat thus far and maybe if they had faced Victor during a time when he was not as technologically equipped they would have beaten him. Today was a different day though and that just simply was not going to happen.

Cannonball hated the fact that he wasn't able to nail Freeze. He had come so close, but the lackey of Sinister moved too fast. His armor looked clunky as hell, but he was able to move with such speed. It shouldn't have been possible but he was able to do it and do it easily. All this fighting reminded him of a very destructive event that happened on his world when he first joined the Avengers. An alien named Noh-Varr had managed to kill Dr. Strange and pilfer his items. Then he stole a Cosmic Cube from AIM and created a super-powered army. Not to mention that he used the Cube to unleash Onslaught on the world again. It had been literal war across the planet and Speedball, Wiz Kid, Captain America, Dr. Midnight, and Iceman had all been among the many deaths.

Marcus Pezzini could feel the power of the Witchblade begging to be unleashed. It wanted nothing more than to scream forth at Freeze and do away with him. Marcus held the power back though if only to allow it the chance to build up. Once unleashed he would destroy this fool and move on to help the others. Running up on Mr. Freeze he tackled the man to the ground and turned his arm into what looked like a crust-covered knife. He was about to strike when his body suddenly turned into ice. Victor kicked the body off of him and shook his head in disappointment. The fool should have known that his armor was made to freeze any who touched it long enough.

Cannonball was coming around for another pass at Freeze and the Marauder knew it. This time though he simply wouldn't dodge the attack. In one of his hands a blue spear began to form out of thin air. It looked like ice crystals were gathering together to form the weapon. Victor leaned back and flung the weapon. Sam expanded his blast field, but Freeze's weapon passed through the barrier. His head jerked back and he went spinning through the air as the spear struck him. Mr. Freeze turned back and saw Darkness slinking towards him.

"Why do you even try?" Mr. Freeze asked as he held out his palm and blue particles ripped forth from the metallic hand. The particles polluted the air of Darkness and he knew that his end was coming soon. Each particle ripped into the flesh of Darkness and began to turn his body colder than ever. He gave Freeze one last cold look of hate and a black mass flew forth from his neck.

The black goop collided with Freeze's helmet and Victor wiped away the mess that was on his armor. Suddenly, he gripped his stomach and fell to the ground in pain. It had been years since Victor had felt pain like the kind Darkness had inflicted on him. It was as if the ice in his veins was on fire. Freeze would not shame himself by screaming so he kept the pain within himself and rolled over on the ground dead.

Reed Von Doom ripped his cloak off and threw it to the ground as the acid from Joker's shirt flower devoured his garment. The son of Doctor Doom was infuriated at the attack on his person and even angrier at the ineffectiveness of his battle partners. Senyaka hadn't been able to land a single one of his life draining tentacles on Joker and Voght's powers were proving more defensive than anything else. Reed was the only one proving his worth against the insanely dressed Marauder.

"Take your medicine Johnny!" Joker yelled as he launched another squirt of acid towards Doom. Reed flew back and blasted the ground in front of Joker. Dirt hit the Marauder in the eye and sent him sprawling.

Senyaka ran to the Joker and pulled out his sword. He was about to cut into Joker's shoulder when the Marauder stabbed the X-Man in the stomach with a knife. He cut through Senyaka's flesh in such a way that the wound was in the outline of a smile. The X-Man's intestines spilled to the floor and fell to the ground dead.

"You guys play rough! I love it!" Joker yelled with glee as he jumped back flung a dart into the mist form of Voght moving towards him. The dart energized the gas form and dissipated the woman into the air.

"Good you got rid of the ruffians! Now we can focus on each other," Reed growled as he flew towards the Marauder.

Joker leaped into the air and slammed his feet into Reed's head. The son of Doom crashed into the ground and rolled over groaning in pain. A sinister smile hung over Reed's face. Pulling out a long gun that stretched for a few feet Joker pointed it in Reed's anger filled face. The son of Doom could not believe that such a fool had put him in a position of disadvantage.

"This is the killing joke baby," Joker smiled as his finger itched to pull the trigger.

SWIKK!

A head rolled to the dirt and it was not that of Reed. Joker tipped over and fell on top of the son of Doom. Pushing the body off of him Reed von Doom saw a smiling Stepstone with a bloody sword. Illyana held out a hand to help Reed to his feet. The Exile pushed away the hand of his fellow dimension hopper and said, "I need no help! I could have won on my own!"

"Sure. Lets just help everyone else," Stepstone, replied. She didn't have time to be annoyed with Reed.

Mr. Majestic and Dr. Light backed Wolverine into a corner and the feral man crouched low prepared to make his last stand. Dr. Light smiled at the easy prey and elbowed Majestic slightly, "Man I got this!"

"Wait!" Majestic yelled as Dr. Light took off towards Wolverine. He wasn't waiting for anybody else. He was going to take down Wolverine and be done with it. The man had slaughtered too many good soldiers and he was going to pay for it. With his ability to harden light the good doctor flung dozens of light knives the way of Wolverine.

The Marauder charged forward letting the daggers rip through his flesh. The pain was nothing. He would take down as many of these fools as possible. Hulk, Freeze, and Joker were all dead. He had never seen this coming. The Marauders were the best, but if they had met their match he would be damned if he didn't go out with style.

Doctor Light wasn't expecting Wolverine to plow through his daggers and was unable to protect himself as the Marauder leaped through the air and stabbed him through the head with his claws. Majestic balled his fists as Light's body hit the ground and made his way to Wolverine. Grabbing the Marauder by the neck he lifted him up into the air, "I hope you enjoy being a satellite!"

With one strong throw Majestic threw the diminutive man into the atmosphere of the Earth. Long before he reached his destination Wolverine was simply a skeleton. Mr. Majestic knew that the forsaken man was dead and turned a weary eye to the last of the Marauders. Soon all of this would be over.

Deathstroke simply smiled in the face of all his enemies. His Marauders had managed to slay many of them, but in the end they had all failed. It was pathetic to watch, but Slade was a man of many plans. He was second only to Sinister in the empire and he would prove why in just a few seconds.

Suddenly, the sky ripped open above the infidels fighting his master. Hundreds of robotic copies of himself rained down from the sky and surrounded the fools. They began to fight ruthlessly against the robots all in the hope they might end up fighting the real Slade. Deathstroke was far too smooth for that though. Looking for his most powerful opponent, Slade prepared his sword for attack. He found it flying in the air destroying mass amounts of his robot copies. Leaping into the air he stabbed his opponent through the chest.

Mistress Strange let out an unearthly cry of pain and mumbled something in a language no one could understand. A light covered Deathstroke and his weapon and he was gone. Falling out of the sky the Soceress Supreme landed in the arms of Stepstone.

Over gurgling blood she managed to say, "I sent him to a hellish world."

"You did good then. You did right," Stepstone replied trying to stay strong in Mistress Strange's final moments.

"I did it by accident of course. Do one thing for me?"

"Anything."

Smiling weakly Ororo said, "Tell Bluestreak I appreciate her being there for me."

Then with that final comment Ororo Munroe passed on into the realm of the dead where Stepstone hoped she would find the peace she never had in life. Looking to Sinister Tower, Illyana wiped away a single tear. She was going to kill Sinister and she would hear him scream before she did it.


End file.
